Bleeding For Winter
by SaraiDaDee
Summary: Things change for a strange girl named Hailence when she meets Evanen, who just so happens to be a strange vampire. What with her being snatched up by a vampire, and drama around this "Rising", who knows what could happen? Completed.
1. Chapter 1: Who You Are Is What You Are

**Bleeding For Winter**

**Chapter One**

_Who You Are Is What You Are_

"It's surprising how many people in life don't know who they are. They know their names, and they know things about themselves, but otherwise... they basically classify themselves. Almost as though they can't go on their own completely. Even the ones who end up "free" or "different" classify themselves. And if a person can't classify themselves, they allow themselves to be classified, which in return causes them to be one of the many people who completely don't know themselves. So how exactly do you be your own person, when doing that would put you in the classification of 'those who are their own person'..."

I... am going to get an 'F' for sure. I interrupted the silence of the dead class room by the sudden roaring of ripping and crinkling of paper. After a couple of dirty looks, I controlled my inner demon that repeated, "Throw it at the teacher... do it.. come on, she has it coming...," and I put the destroyed paper in the corner of my desk. We weren't allowed to walk freely in the classroom during class time, so papers were to stay with you and if your pencil broke, you were to use your own blood. Curtesy of Ms. Genny, Voldemort's long lost wife (probably on purpose).

I looked at the blank peice of paper in front of me. I was preparing to write a 8 to 10 page essay - damn the man who came up with college rule paper - describing who I believed I was. Ms. Genny did not appreciate a play on words, which explains why I believed I would get an 'F' on the first try. I chewed on the eraser of my pencil and started writing, my fore-finger nail trying to dig through the tape rolled around my mid-thumb for protection, my second try:

"If I were to tell you in an impressive description as to who I believe I am, it would simply be a longer, more tiring version - in which professional educators eat up like oxygen - of a simpler verified sentence. This sentence would simply be: 'I believe I am a person who does not know who I am'. And so, taking that phantasmagoric sentence, my diction being used to "blow your mind", I will make eight pages of constant babble that merely tells you what each word in the sentence means, along with testing the English language and stretching the ablility of the sentence to higher lengths, along with examples of persons who also would think they knew who they were without actually knowing. I will do this merely to irritate your ability to be easily irritated because I hate that wart on the brim of your abnormally large nose..."

I cackled, interrupting the silence once more, but I once again ignored the evil demon that told me to finish eight pages of the essay and turn it in. I ripped up the pages, adding more noise to the room, and the room shuffled with uneasiness. It was a clear warning, and I stopped ripping the pages in mid-rip. I peered up at Ms. Genny, and sure enough... her evil, yellow-brown eyes that held Hell's fire behind them were directing their flames at me.

"Miss Truit, seeing as you like ripping paper, would you like to replace my shredder and rip my everyday excess papers of eight hours of English classes after school," Ms. Genny asked with a strangely normal woman's voice that held even kindness - a lie so well done that it's hard to hear the distinguished evil behind it. Ms. Barbara Genny had a face of a fifty year old, but she was only 35. Nobody knew what her body shape was, besides the towering tallness that helped her eyes in making you two inches tall, because of her style of clothes: extremely baggy professional-dress clothes. Her hair was untamed and apparently she didn't feel a reason to fix that.

"Sorry for the noise, Ms. Genny. I promise I'll stop," I answered, replacing my blank face with a look of terror and beggance for my life. I could just show my inner demon voice's face, but I preferred not to be a shredder for the rest of my school year. Then again, I was also controlling the urge to add, 'I merely want to write the perfect essay for you because you're perfect. I worship you. I pray to a shrine of you everynight, and I've sewn your picture onto my pillow.' That would be overdoing it, and I'd be a shredder while being placed in a shredder. Apparently my self-discipline worked because Ms. Genny continued looking at the papers on her desk without another word. But that could also mean that she'll tell me her decision of my servitude to her later on. So much for not being stressed.

I hated writing essays that were fake. They lose the voice. But apparently Ms. Genny liked it better when her students had no voices, in real life or on paper. So here came another long essay on what I am, as opposed to who I believed I was. It was time to lie to myself. Who I am is what I am. Lie lie lie.

What I am is a seventeen year old girl who wishes that she had adorexia. Life would be so much more simpler if you didn't care. Then again it would be a life wasted if you didn't care about living. My name on my birth certificate would be Hailence Wyn Truit. When I asked my dad how exactly my name appeared, he said my mother had a beautiful talent of being able to be satisfied with names only when she could make them hers. So she had taken the nice name, Hailey, and messed with a pen for awhile to come up with Hailence. So instead of sounding like Hay-lence, it came out more like... Hail-ence. And my middle name came from my dad, who loved Winnie the Pooh for about ever now. So my mother didn't care much about what my middle name was as much as my first, but my dad wanted it to be spelled pretty. Now my mom was satisfied with a weird yet pretty name while my dad was satisfied to be able to call me Wynnie... which he could add 'The Pooh' at the end. And to annoy both of them, my friends agreed to nickname me Hail because Hailence was too pretty and Wynnie sickened them... and Hail sounds like Hell.

I figure myself a little short, being 5'2, but I blame my body's yearning for death of suffering for that. Still, I believed I had an average body. It was the kind in which my ass and boobs looked big no matter what I wore - which makes girls jealous, guys happy, and me annoyed - and my belly didn't go over my pant's waist while my love handles had no problem in sticking their issues past the barrier. I can't mention my fat thighs or I'll lower my self esteem fifty points in my thoughts of their fatness. I have self-esteem issues, though I'm told I'm pretty. I believe it's because I grew up obese and my body had refused to hit physical puberty whilst my face decided to go ahead and pop up with the acne. That made for a couple of years of insults before the acne and fatness cleared, which has probably damaged my mental state for life. I have my... someones hair. I get confused. Sometimes I think it's my dad's color when he didn't go bald, which was horse brown, and for awhile I had thought it was my mother's hair... but then I was reminded that she was blonde. So I have copper hair, which is when it wouldn't decide between brown or red, so it blended together in harmony. It's not even fixed fantastically. It's just straight to my shoulders and layered, along with off centered bangs. Wow, right? And as for my eyes, they're just brown. Normal and boring. They're kind of dark, but not so dark that anyone could mistake them for black. They're just... brown. No swirls. No specks. Brown.

As for where I've found myself to reside in, I was born and raised in this sort of small town of Merit, Missouri. I believe it's a rather insane place to live. You know, the kind where it looks normal on the outside but ends up being completely screwed up on the inside... like insane people? But I guess it could be worse. It wasn't as if I'd actually ever heard of people occasionally being shot on the side of the road in driveby's everyday. Still, one day I was planning to hop out of here to better things, but I've always had a feeling that I'd just end up right back here to raise my twenty kids by myself in a sewer because their alcoholic father preferred trash cans. That's why school is here; for a life of safety until they throw you out in the middle of a highway.

My family is really small. I have no grandparents, and both of my parents were the only child... who had parents that were only childs. So ultimately, I may have distant relations somewhere, but they're not known. In fact, I'm an only child. Once I was going to have a little brother, but before he could breathe a weeks worth of oxygen, he was in the ground. I think they said it was S.I.D.S.; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Still, Seanel (Shawn-el) Bartholomew Truit had an impact on my small family in those few days of his life. With his death came the death of my dad's faith in Christianity, my mother's happiness, and ultimate death of the three Truits in the Truit family. We're not technically dead, but to make this short, my mom ended up high-tailing it out of our lives to as far as 2, 000 miles away before she was happy where she was. That was when I was five. Not that I was that damaged by it. Sometimes I wish she had stayed so that life would have been less confusing... say, like, in the custom of puberty. But then again, that's what school's for. Otherwise, I've always felt as though my mother's return would be the thing that would damage me and cause me to murder innocent people for fun. And so I lived in a two bedroom, one bathroom trailor with my dad, Bartholomew Truit. Everyone calls him Bart, though.

So, name, age, looks, family, and living arrangements... it's safe to say that I go to Merit High School and I'm recently finishing the last week of my school year as a Junior. That's right, Ms. Genny assigned us an 8-10 page essay on the last week of school. She's like that. It's due in two days, too. But other than that, I guess I've got to cover friends and future...

My future - or what I would like it to contain - includes actually thinking of something to become. I'm almost a senior, and I still have no idea exactly what I'm wanting to do with my life. Probably something that doesn't involve a lot of physical exercise. I guess it could be something in the feild of boringness, such as accounting, estate, or ect. Otherwise, I have a dream of owning and raising a black or black and white Newfoundland (male or female) and naming it Saint Jude. Why? Because St. Jude was a guy who would find people who were lost and showed them the way, one of my favorite Saints, and I was hoping I could give the dog the theme song 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles. Oh, and I'd also like to witness a moonbow before I die. It's like a rainbow, except it's made by the moon, not the sun. So it's at night. The problem is, how do you see a full moon on a rainy night... through the rain? I guess the only way a moonbow is going to be witness is if I go to a nice big waterfall at night, such as Yosemite Falls over in California. But I have a whole life to go do that, so it's just on my list.

And my friends, my people, are very special. I guess you can say that I like to move with the emo, punk, rock, and goth crowd. Though I don't even try to dress as special as they do, seeing as I'm more of a jeans and a t-shirt person, I've never felt weird around them. Plus, hanging out with them all these years confuses people as to why I would consider them my best friends. I guess having no peircing, no abnormally large obsession towards dark colors, no drug usage, no self-affliction, no criminal record, no sex, and no failing classes while hanging out with a bunch of people who do all of the above can confuse people. At least I'm not dubbed a poser. I consider it a kind of inner demon satisfaction type of thing. I may never cuss and I may refer to Jesus a lot, but I still like listening to screaming on the radio. It satisfying. I'm sure everyone has a little demon in them, some just don't hold it back.

I'm a person who likes writing. It doesn't matter what I'm writing. I like when the teachers give me essays, reports, or even simple open-responses to do. Unless the teacher's name is Ms. Genny, who doesn't appreciate writing unless it's exactly what she wants it to say. I even have a notebook in which I write different things. Sometimes I'll write about a subject, such as a controversial subject like gay marriage or abortion. And sometimes I'll write about random things, like the subject of time - if it's even correct, if maybe there's actually suppose to be 25 hours in a day, 8 days in a week, 13 months in a year - or questioning the world in whole. Sometimes I like to go back to those, so I'll put a continuence on another page. And sometimes I'll even pick a random word and start defining it in my own terms. Maybe even state what I would do if something had happened to me. Then I have poems I write on some pages and the beginning of both my life and fictional life stories. But I'd never finish them. Only professionally taught people could write stories. And the only thing I've been trained in is what adjectives and verbs are.

I like animals - exotic or normal, it doesn't matter -, orange, music, singing, cheese pizzas, orange soda, and running. I run in the school track team. But there's no more meets for the rest of this year so I'm left running around the park for exercise. I like wearing skater shoes, even though I prefer roller skating over skate boards. And since the only way I blend with my crowd is with my love of jewelry, they gladly present me with a variaty of skull, demon, and metallic jewelry necklaces, rings, bracelets, and earrings. The only makeup I wear is eyeliner and lip gloss, and not even a lot of that. I like to party, but I'm not allowed to drink alcohol in fear of death. And drugs would probably aid in that as well. I don't own a cell phone, and the only time I get on the internet is for important school work. I would be an all A student, if it wasn't for the evil presence of History that always keeps me at an 89. I like reading, but it doesn't control my life. And when I have the time, I don't mind volunteering around the school.

I don't know who I am. But if who I am is what I am, I'm another person who is alive without actually living.


	2. Chapter 2: List Of Problems

**Chapter Two**

_List Of Problems_

Lunch. Not that I'd be happy if I had to eat the cafeteria food, but this was the time where school was no longer school. I opened my locker, stuffing my bag into it with a certain type of rage. I had to stay after school for thirty minutes and scrub the desk tops in Ms. Genny's room. I couldn't help but ripping up another peice of paper. Plus, my back was starting to burn with slouching forward. Not that leaning back would fix that pain burdened to me for the rest of my life. And I could feel a headache coming along.

"Hail, you better stop hitting your bag or you'll kill yourself," I heard Kyler say behind me. I slammed the locker door shut and turned to look at my best friend. Her name is actually Kylee Madison, she has no middle name, and her hatred of her name is almost killer. Still, I was the one who started up the nickname Kyler, which though pronounced Ky as in pie- ler, sounds a lot like killer and satisfies her. Everyone basically calls her Kyler Mad. She wore black tripp pants with red laces, without the chains due to school rules, and a sustainable ammount of jewelry without the spikes, due to school rules. Her hair was extremely long, to the bottom of her butt, but very thick and healthy and death black. The ends of her hair were spiked somehow, and even her bangs were rows of spikes across her forehead before crawling down stairlike to her normal length. Her eyes were green, and around them were thick eyeliner that extended into three whisker like spikes on the corner of her eyes. Then she had red eyeshadow on. Kyler was imaginative with her makeup. She put black eyeliner on her lips and followed it with lipgloss so that it was a glossy black. And she branded her face with a nose ring, snake bits, and an eyebrow ring on her left eyebrow. Still, she's not emo, goth, or punk. She's Kyler.

"Whatever, there's something seriously damaged about Ms. Genny. I merely rip the paper so as to not upset her by turning it in instead, and what do I get in return," I asked in annoyance, my headache pulsing more profoundly. "I get to stay after school and go through slave labor in _her_ presence for thirty minutes. Think my back hurts right now? Cuh." Cuh being my scoff/gasp of discust. Kyler started walking with me towards the lunchroom. The nurse's office was on the way.

"Did she say how long you had to do this," Kyler asked calmly.

"Two days."

"She's just a bitch, Hail. Just think: there's only four days left of school after today. And saturday we'll go over to the Soundstage and hear some local bands at the concert," Kyler said optimistically, "Meanwhile, you get to explain to Nurse Richards why you're not following doctor's advice. See you at lunch." Kyler smiled evily and I rolled my eyes as I moved to a door on the left of the hall just before the lunchroom. I walked into the nurse's office, and Nurse Richards stood there. She had extremely short, curly red hair and her golden speckled brown eyes peered at my grim face expectantly.

"If it isn't our own little miss problems," Nurse Richards said. I didn't disagree, I have a lot of problems. "Let's see, which one do you want first? Blood pressure or blood glucose monitor?"

"Glucose first, pressure during the reading," I responded as usual. Nurse Richards pulled out the monitor and I held out my forefinger. She pricked my finger, and I pushed down on the meat just below it to push a drop of blood onto the strip of paper. Then I moved over the the blood pressure monitor and started strapping it to my arm. I could do that myself, even though I didn't much like the electronical ones. I waited as the strap around my arm tightened in a deathening grip that made me feel as though one day my arm would just pop off because of this. Soon it started loosening, and the results weren't looking as though they would satisfy Nurse Richards.

"Well, blood sugar is 95. How's the blood pressure," Nurse Richards asked. I glared at the machine, taking off the strap and pulling out a peice of paper. I was suppose to write down my blood pressure levels everyday to report to my doctor once a month.

"145 over 110," I responded, "Ms. Genny got to me again."

"What have we all been telling you, Hailence?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it."

Nurse Richards put away the monitors and opened a cabinent. "Let's see," she said and brought a couple of bottles and a box over to the table I was at, "We've got insulin--" She opened the box and I started on that. I wouldn't need too much, just enough to not allow my food today to kill me. "And now for the checkoff... blood pressure..." She put a pill on the table. "... Arthritis..." She put two pills with the first one. ".. and Anemia..." She finished off with a vitamin pill. I injected the insulin, and started swallowing each pill, especially thankful for the two anti-inflammatory pills that would help with my back. "And you're good on air, right?" I nodded. "Then you're good for lunch." And Nurse Richards started putting away the medicines.

Did I forget to mention the reason that I believed myself to be full of problems, or have they been noticed? I guess you can say it all started when I was born. It took about two years to notice the first problems, but by the time I was five, I knew my doctor like I knew my parents. First came the screaming about the stomach pains. My parents got pretty worried about that, so with some blood tests, not only did I learn that I have Congenital (which means 'with birth')Pernicious Anemia, but I learned I was doomed with Type 1 Diabetes for life. For those who aren't doctors, Pernicious Anemia is when my stomach protein decided not to absorb B12 vitamins that well. And B12 vitamins is important for the nuero whatever part of your body. Which means no B12 means ultimate pain and brain damage. Well, it's bad enough that it can screw up your vision. And this Anemia doomed me to a monthly injection of B12 vitamins forever, which was good until I hit puberty and had to take oral vitamins as well. I'll probably have to end up inhaling through the nose vitamins when shots and ingestion stops working. But Type 1 Diabetes, which a lot of people have, is simply when the pancreas decides not to produce insulin. Insulin is used especially in destruction of sugar in your blood, so when it's not there, that sugar gets to grow fatter until it decides to hit your eyes, blinding you, and eventually killing you. So now I get to do a daily injection of insulin that was taken from the pancreas of a pig or horse. Let's just say I'm a needle's best friend.

But that's not all. At some point, I started getting major fever bursts, and wouldn't move in the morning due to pain. I'd say that started around the age of six. It creeped my dad out, seeing as my mom was AWOL. And that was when we learned I was also doomed with Polyarticular Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. That's when you have adult major arthritis, unbearable pain in the joints, as a kid. So then I've had to take things like hydroxychloroquine, Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aka NSAIDS), and even corticosteroids to take away that pain because it can't be exactly cured unless Jesus still was here. At least when puberty hit, it stopped being as bad as before. But now I'm doomed for regular Rheumatoid Arthritis as an adult, so yay. And so we stopped being so shocked about having problems and it was reasonably normal to find out that I suffered from Hypertension, which is a fancy word for High Blood Pressure. And if you don't know what _that_ is, it's when your heart starts shoving that blood throughout your body with a rage so full that it'll give out if it doesn't stop. So I'm happy when it's around 130/95 because that's as normal as I'll get in that feild... which is actually prehypertension and not normal or good. Average normality would be around 120/80, which is impossible for me. And to top off the list of problems, I have asthma. But that's easily controlled with an inhalor, which is needed when some other problem with me is acting up and pushing the asthma to do its thing. So not only do I deal with fatigue from diabetes, pain and sensitivity to light from arthritis (ergo my back in flames), a sudden burst of speed of my heart beating from vitamin defienciency, and a sudden loss of breath, dizzyness, and even nosebleeds from blood pressure, but I also get to inhale some sort of battery acid.

I thanked Nurse Richards, who secretly enjoyed my abnormally long list of problems. It actually gave her something to do everyday rather than just looking at sprained ankles and students who have the flu. And I was off to lunch where I hopped the lunch line to obtain my special lunch that I handed to the lunch ladies every morning. I walked over to the mass of metallic, black clothed students in their own corner, and instead of the glares that other normal looking students would get at approaching them, I was greeted warmly and Kyler moved her backpack out of a chair that was saved for myself. I sat down and looked at my sorted tray that held the sugary food to the left, meat in the middle, and vegetables on the right. Due to my actually normal readings I could eat equal ammounts of each, which made me as happy as I'll ever get.

Though this mass of goth/punk/emo teenagers did all indeed stay basically in a massive group, they were split up in their own way. In one section, everyone was drawing doom and handing it to whoever wanted to see it, in another the group was hovered around a mass of mp3 players and taking turns listening to new screamos. Then there was the section I sat with, in which it was just a bunch of us just eating and talking and insulting. And last, there was the section that just sat there, absolutely quiet. Usually the posers hang with that section, so nobody bothers them unless they throw stuff at them or dump food into their backpacks. But only the stupid ones. Some of them were actually cool, so we left them on their own like they clearly were asking.

Kyler was in the middle of a rant with another anime-lover boy named Pheonix, some scrawny little emo boy who creeps everyone out. "...And I told that bitch that if she looked at me that way again, I would shove that little icecream cone of hers up her ass until she became an icecream maker!" And Kyler crossed her arm and leaned back, kicking the table, which made an orange jump out of one person's tray and hit another's milk that spilled all across the table to the drawings, which in turn made everyone jump up to avoid the flood. I stayed seated and took a bite out of my carrot while Kyler started cussing at the drawing section who was cussing at her for screwing up their drawings.

"Oh, draw them again. They weren't that good anyways, stupid dumbasses," Kyler yelled. But everybody used their napkins to clean up the mess and sit down before a teacher could take notice and send anyone to the office. Kyler has always had an anger issue, which is why she's the voice of my inner demon. I continued to start ingesting my food, completely unfazed by the sudden tension. It's a technique that's suppose to help keep my blood pressure as low as possible.

While everyone was distracted by the sudden mess, D.J. of the Music section had traveled over to our section and pulled up a seat on the right side of me, placing me in between him and Kyler. His name is actually the funniest of the whole group, though only known by a few who can keep a secret; he knows, his best friend knows by him, I know because D.J. told me, and Kyler knows because I told her. And so though everyone just figures his name is D.J. Jets, his name is actually Darwin Einstein Jets. His parents had high hopes for him, but he broke them, becoming a skateboarding, hard rock, black loving emo boy named D.J. And while Kyler's hair is dyed, like most of the people in the group, D.J.'s is naturally black, seeing as he has a black father and a white mother. He took after his dad in the body tone and height section, but in nothing else. He didn't wear eyeliner, his eyes were black enough, and nothing on his face was peirced unless you counted the tongue ring. Still, I had known him for a year now, so when he sat next to me, I ignored it and turned to Kyler.

"So there's a concert saturday," I asked, popping a skittle into my mouth and offering some to Kyler and D.J. Kyler dropped her rage at the world and switched to joy in a blink of an eye, almost as though she were bipolar.. which I believe she could be. She took a couple of skittles.

"Oh, yeah, and everyone's going to be there. Apparently a vampire band called 'Death Reign' is suppose to be playing, and they're actually really good. Suppose to be getting an offer anytime. And there's gonna be a bunch of creeps like us dressing up like vamps. It's going to be cool, seeing so many freaks there," Kyler said, cackling.

"Are you going," D.J. asked, placing himself into the conversation. I turned my head to look at him, switching my status from humorous fun in Kyler's presence to shy speaker in his. It's a self-esteem issue.

"I guess. Are you," I asked quietly.

"Sure. It should be interesting," he responded, and I glanced at Kyler to see that she cheerfully had removed herself from the conversation to Pheonix so that I couldn't get out of talking to him. So I clutched my guts inside and turned back to D.J. I've known him a year and he still makes me nervous. And I don't even like him that much. It's just that he looked at me, and it made me feel like I was having a blood pressure episode. Indeed, my headache was still there, but it was just as bad as before.

"Yeah, a bunch of people pretending to be vampires. Interesting," I said.

"Here, wanna listen," D.J. asked, holding out an earmic to his mp3 player, and jumping on the opportunity of not having to think of something to say, I took it and put it in my ear, placing my elbow on the table and leaning my ear on my hand so that it wouldn't fall out. My ears somehow defied the nature of ear headphones, so that if I were to just stick them in there, they'd just pop out in a second. I just prefer normal headphones, but beggars can't be choosers. And D.J. and I spent the rest of lunch listening to songs by Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Nirvana, and Disturbed. Sometimes he'd switch the song halfway through, but I didn't care because I knew all of them anyways.

After lunch, my headache had subsided, which told me my blood pressure was probably back to the normal top line of prehypertension, and my back didn't hurt as bad. So I took out my backpack, which was more of an over-the-shoulder thing because normal backpacks were killer, with ease. Thirty minutes of scrubbing isn't much to get worked up over. But Kyler didn't just say she'd see me later and left. Instead, she stood there with a smirk on her face.

"What," I finally asked after staring at her.

"So, you and Darwin gonna tie the knot anytime soon," Kyler asked with humor. I punched her arm.

"First of all, it's D.J. I told you that in trust that you'd keep it to yourself. Someone could overhear you," I responded in fake annoyance. If someone overheard, they'd have no idea who Darwin was anyways. "And second, it's not even like that."

Kyler scoffed. "Yeah, right. And you stumbling over your words in front of him and him leaving his friends to hang out with you isn't 'like that' at all. Sure. Whatever. Just make sure that I'm the bridesmaid. And I want to choose the dresses. I know some awesome black dresses that I could get special ordered. They're cool. They got these spikes and chains instead of straps. And the wedding dress is wicked..." I rolled my eyes and started walking down the hall towards my Chemistry class.

"I don't even think I like him. It's not stumbling over words because I think he's hot... though... nevermind, it's self-esteem issues. You know that," I explained as she followed along side me. We had the same Chemistry class together. "And he probably just gets bored of listening to music in the same spot... everyday... so he... moves over... like..." I was realizing how stupid that sounded and I turned around to face Kyler. "You think he really likes me?"

Kyler nodded with confidence. "What's not to like? You're a little, cute misfit among the misfits. And everyone knows a bad boy likes good girls."

"Why?"

Kyler switched from her omniscent personality to a sudden loofy, wondering one, "I don't know. I think it has something to do with destruction of innocence or something..." She shrugged.

Great. A bad boy. There's another thing to add to my abnormally long list of problems. I should be on Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Both Kyler and I entered Chemistry to listen to the slightly dull but easy talk on the formulas of chemicals in Chemistry.


	3. Chapter 3: Fangs Among Fangs

**Chapter Three**

_Fangs Among Fangs_

Apparently, the vampire band, Death Reign, was actually extremely good. According to Kyler, they're really into gore, death, and sex songs about vampires and blood. She likes the song 'Blood Of Eternity'. But she said every emo kid in town and the towns surrounding Merit, Missouri was suppose to be coming to the Soundstage, so it was absolutely vital that we went to the local concert of the beginning of summer. Can't say "of the summer" because it is just a local concert.

And so, the last four days of school flew past, and on the last Friday of being a Junior, I was satisfied with having to leave to go to the doctor because Ms. Genny raised my blood pressure high enough that before I could stop and breathe, my nose started dripping blood like it was trying to drain the pain of my headache out of my brain. It didn't exactly do that, but it did make me pass out and I got the rest of the day off. Plus, according to Kyler, the look on Ms. Genny's face when Kyler felt obliged to burst into the room at lunch and accuse her of nearly killing me (which wasn't even true because nosebleeds are bad but not deathly) was priceless. And my dad decided to talk to the principal about Ms. Genny, stating that she was told from the beginning of my problems and clearly ignored them without care. To cover that up, she paid for my doctor visit.

So it was saturday, and I was sitting on my couch in the living room with my dad, waiting for Kyler to come pick me up. My dad never really had a problem with me hanging out with the people I hang out with because he noticed that though I stayed around them so much, I didn't seem to have the ability to be influenced by them. I was clearly keeping orange as my favorite color, but for tonight, I had painting my nails black. That's as close to emo as I'll get, sorry. So I was planning on going to see Death Reign in dark jeans, a red shirt, and my skater shoes... still keeping just my regular ammount of eyeliner and my massive ammounts of jewelry on my being. Meanwhile, I'll be surrounded by a sea of black, with an assorted colored heads of hair, such as neon purple and pinks and blacks and greens. Along with all these mouths that held plastic or dentured vampire fangs. Some may have even went as far as to use a nail filer on their canines. Still, music is music, and what you look like when you're listening to it doesn't change how good it sounds.

"Remember, no alcohol or drugs. It'll mess up your system in a heartbeat," Dad repeated to me as I watched the movie 'We Are Marshall'. Dad loves football, and even though I'm more of a runner, I liked the movie anyways. It was sad, but everyone was learning to move on. I didn't mind watching movies like these.

I looked at him. "Yeah, I know. I haven't touched alcohol in my life, and drugs are for druggies," I assured him.

"Make sure you just go to the Concert and come right back home," he said.

"I will. I never lie about where I'm going unless necessary, dad," I joked yet told the truth. I smiled widely.

"And if you come home pregnant, I'll kill every little freak boy in the state," Dad threatened.

"I'm a lesbian, dad," I lied. It got him off my case, but I think the posters of guys in my room gave that away anyways. It was worth a try. Before dad could say anything about that, headlights flashed through the window, and I got up. "I'll see you after the concert." And I opened the door to the honking of Kyler, who would want to get there early of course.

"And don't talk to strangers," Dad called after me desperately.

I opened the front passenger side door and called back, "Love ya!" That brought about a bunch of 'Awww', 'Hail loves her daddy', and ect. I got into the car to see that Kyler had brought along four people from our section, including Pheonix and Kyler's sister, Mandy... whom we couldn't come up with a better nickname to replace hers. Unless she preferred to be called Man.

"Shut up, you dorks," I snapped in a kidding tone. And we all waved my dad goodbye as Kyler drove out of the trailor park. The ride to the concert was loud. Everyone felt obliged to talk, laugh, and yell loudly. Plus, the radio was on a metal station on full blast. And so we had four people in the back who were moving around, yelling out the window, and you had Kyler, who was laughing and practically hopping with excitement. I leaned my head against the window and listened to the music that I could hear. And during my thought process, I was interrupted by someone poking the back of my head. I turned around in the darkness to look at Pheonix, who was yelling something and holding out plastic vampire teeth. Apparently he had brought a whole set to pass out to whoever wanted them. I shook my head no, though. I'm fine with my real teeth. But Kyler took it and everyone in the car was soon human vampires, hissing at each other, except for me. A misfit among misfits.

We arrived at the Soundstage, and Kyler pulled up to the front of the building. "You guys go ahead. Me and Hail are gonna go to BloodScore for a bit," Kyler yelled over the noise. The back seat was emptied the next minute, and Kyler parked the car. Normally, I'd be confused, but I know that BloodScore is merely located right next to the Soundstage. It was a store made specifically for people like Kyler and the crowd we hang out with. It was like Hot Topic, except less were made around this world.

I followed Kyler over to the BloodScore building, but we spotted a sno cone stand just outside it. I laughed at the obscenity of it, but I had to drag Kyler over so I could buy a red sno cone. Then we continued over towards the shop, while I was in joy for having a tastey cherry sno cone.

"Why are we going here," I asked Kyler. Usually we went after a concert to look at what new things they had. Though the only thing I liked looking at were the jewelry and shoes. But otherwise I didn't have a point in coming to this place.

"i want to get some different makeup real quick so I can look like a real vampire before the concert," Kyler explained, "You want to get some stuff? We could make you look like one, too." Kyler was always itching to know what I would be like as a goth/punk girl.

"Maybe on Halloween," I replied humorously. And we entered the slightly darkened shop. It was actually a good, decent size. They had all types of things here. Makeup, clothes, jewelry, music; the works. There was some sort of lights that would blink like it would be at a club, along with colored lights. It made the place more disturbing than with regular Wal-Mart lights. And you could hear the loud rock music clearly. At the entrance were a couple of cash registers, with employees that seemed to have no other uniform requirement besides black, metallic clothes. And one guy had a green mohawk with a bunch of peircings on his face that was connected by chains. Kyler had to comment on how awesome he looked before heading over towards the makeup section.

The place was swarming with people. It seemed that the store was perfect in it's chosen state. There were always rock concerts going on, and people could come here to see what they were selling. And today people were dressed as vampires for Death Reign, searching for cool clothes and fake blood and fangs. Every person I passed seemed to be messing with their plastic vampire teeth. And the flourescent lights in the store made them glow. Kyler felt obliged to hiss at everyone, who was glad to hiss right back. But I could tell the teeth were fake because the flourescent light showed the trace of the dark shadows of their real teeth underneath. I started smiling at some point, amused by the abstract ideas of every person's appearance. But Kyler wouldn't let me get lost in the amusement, for she kept a hold of my wrist so that I'd stay caught up with her.

We turned into the isle of makeup that both brightened and darkened the left side of the isle. This was because there was an assortment of dark, depressing makeup, followed by rainbows of colored makeup. On the right side of the isle were all kinds of hair dyes and gel. Kyler started sifting through the makeup, so I backed up more towards the dyes.

"Are you sure you don't want anything," Kyler asked, "You'll look a bit out of place at this if you don't."

I shrugged, "And since when has that ever changed my mind?" Kyler started back to picking some red and black eyeliner. She started looking at the eyeshadow. My lips were cold from the sno cone, but I still took another bite. By now my lips and tongue were blood red, so maybe that would satisfy Kyler enough. I smirked.

Suddenly, I was pushed forward when someone just plowed past me without announcing themselves. My sno cone dropped to the floor, spilling the red liquid ice to the floor like blood. Kyler turned around and bursted out laughing at my mishap, but instead of looking down at my sno cone, I had turned my head to look at the stupid asshole who had pushed passed me without so much as an 'excuse me'. I've hanged around plenty of these types of people to know that just because they look different didn't mean they didn't have manners. And I saw the guy still walking off as though he hadn't done a thing. From behind he just looked like a tall guy with bleached blonde hair. And he must have sensed me glaring at him because he slowed down a bit.

It was as if time started to slow down. He turned his head to the right slowly in mid-step, and a peircing blue eye glared at me from the corner of his eye. Then my glance went to his mouth as he growled threateningly, baring his teeth momentarily. And then he turned a corner and was gone. Time went back to normal, and Kyler was laughing at my spilled sno cone. I frowned.

"Did you see that," I asked Kyler in wonder.

She laughed harder, "Yeah.. you... aha... he pushed you... and you... dropped... ahaha... your coney... ha... who's gonna pick _that_ up?" And she cackled. I didn't quite see what was so funny about that.

"No, did you see that guy," I asked, shaking my head and looking back at the sno cone.

"Oh, yeah. You're right. He was a complete hottie. But if he wasn't, I would've kicked his nice ass for you," Kyler responded. She seemed to be getting ahold of herself, and she bent over and grabbed the cone of the sno cone. But the sno was forever lost to me. Not that I was worried about that.

"Nooooo," I sighed in exasperation, "Did you see his teeth? He had fangs."

Kyler snorted, "So do I. So does she." She pointed at a random girl in the isle. "We all do. Death Reign, remember?" She paused. "Oh, God. Are you having an episode? Was it the sno cone? I knew you shouldn't have eaten that. Think of all the sugar... want me to call 911?"

I shook my head. "No. I--" I gave up. "Nevermind. I'm going to go look at the jewelry. You can go ahead to the concert if you want."

Kyler smirk slyly, "You're going to go look for that guy, aren't you?"

"No."

"Yeah, whatever. I'll be where I'm always at in the concert. If you can't find me, we'll meet at the car after the concert, all right," Kyler said. "Hope you find your lover boy. But just so you know..." She got closer, "I don't think he seemed that interested in you." I shoved her back playfully.

"See ya," Kyler said, and grabbed her pack of makeup before heading off to the cash register. I hesitated, but started walking in the direction the guy had headed. When I saw his teeth, I didn't see the dark shadow of the real ones underneath. Then again, it was a side snarl so that could've blocked it. Plus, I have visual problems anyways because of my problems. So I wasn't "following" him because I thought he was cute or a vampire, I just thought he was kind of interesting. Something about him drew me to him. Maybe it was that he clearly was bugged about something. And who knows, maybe _he's_ my inner demon. Also, I wasn't following him per say... I was merely walking around the store with a small hope of maybe... maybe catching one more glance at him. He was actually pretty cute. From what I saw.

It looked as though I wasn't going to be catching a glance or anything from that guy again. I walked around for a while, and soon people were started to file out of the store for the concert. If I didn't start leaving, I would probably miss some of it myself. And that would tick Kyler off if I found her late. The only reason why I wouldn't find her is if she moved, but if she didn't, then she'd want to know why I wasn't there for so long. Plus, it was just some guy. There was no need to be so bugged about some...

At the guy's clothing, he appeared directly in front of me. I was startled enough to where my heart jumped and ached with the startlement. He was indeed quite tall, though I'm sure I would've been taller if it wasn't for my JRA (arthritis). And now I was nervous because he looked as though he knew I had been looking for him. He was abnormally pale, which was normal for emos and goths. He must be one because he had a dark black 'HIM' shirt and his converse shoes were half covered by his thickly chained tripp pants. He had snake bites just like Kyler, but otherwise no jewelry was on his attire. His peircing blue eyes glared at me, but he smirked, showing no fangs at all. See, either I have visual problems or he took them out.

I was once again startled when he grabbed my right hand and pulled it in front of him. It was as in hand holding, but more like how the guy dancers at balls greet the women; where he held my fingers and had the back of my hand faced up. I pulled my hand back a bit... or tried, but it didn't budge from his stone cold hand.

"Can I ask you something," he asked in a dark voice. Something about the smirk on his face and the look in his eyes was starting to make my heart rate rise even more than it already was.

"Sh-sure," I stuttered, hoping he would let go of my hand so I could run embarrassingly away. At this point I was wishing Kyler was here. She could actually help me seeing as I'm a wimp. And now the store was just about empty because of the concert.

But instead of asking anything, he lifted my hand to his lips. I felt the fear being replaced with a slight tingle of embarrassment at being afraid. And he opened his mouth, flashing the fangs that hadn't been there just before, and bit down on my hand opposite of my thumb. I opened my mouth at the sudden pain, scrunching my eyebrow together in startlement, but no sound came out. Instead, the world faltered for a second, and I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion flow through my body as it rebounded with a draining wave. I still had my mouth opened, trying to get a sound out as he kept my hand to his mouth. I couldn't even move to try to hit him or anything. Instead, I just started to feel my legs give out, and started sinking to the floor. As I went down, he followed me until he ultimately had to let go of my hand. I felt a tongue ring as well as he licked the wound before grabbing me. The world was pulsing and twirling as he dragged me over to the racks of pants. He propped me up to sit to the left of him, his arm around my waist to hold me up. I leaned my head against his shoulder weakly, not because I wanted to but because I couldn't hold it up anymore. And he grabbed my wrist.

He twisted my right hand around to where it was palm up, and raised my wrist to his lips and I felt another jolt of pain as he bit the side of my wrist just below my hand. A small whine came out with an exhale of air, but that was about all I could get out. The rock music overhead was a roar of constant noise at this point, and I thought I saw someone walking by, but we looked like a simple couple by now. All they could see was me leaning against my boyfriend as he kiss my wrist. And soon it was as if I was going through a constant dizzy spell that never stopped for a break. My heart flutter, taking away my breath, and repeated. This stopped the guy... the real vampire from continuing, and he once again licked the second wound before lowered my hand from his mouth. Apparently he was finished. My heart continued fluttering, causing black spots to invade my sight. It was my blood pressure. Usually it's just an occasional flutter, but a constant one was begging my asthma to start in.

He picked me up bridal style, and my head hanged back as though I lost all control of any muscle. My heart struggled until my asthma started straining my airway, and soon the dark, spotted, twirling, abstract world was flashing from view to blackness to rage to blackness to rage again. It was as if I was going insane. And at some point, I felt the breeze of the outside world on my cheek. I closed my eyes to the insane blur of the world, wheezing for air. I was going to die. There was no way I was going to live through this. Too many problems.

Suddenly, there was solid ground under me again. I kept my eyes closed, and stopped breathing. It was too hard to struggle for air. I was leaned against something solid; a wall. And my numb hands were laying dead like against hard, rocky cement. After a moment, I wasn't being bothered anymore. I opened my eyes, welcoming the swirling world to my vision. The sudden twist of the world caused me to roll my head around. But I struggled in air and tried to focus. I could hear screaming, but it was more of a pleasure type of scream. I was leaning against the wall of the Soundstage. Nobody would be out here for hours, though, and I would be dead by then. Who knows? Maybe I'm already dead.

I give up.


	4. Chapter 4: Believing The Impossible

**Chapter Four**

_Believing The Impossible_

Just as I thought I was doomed, the door to the Soundstage bursted open and someone stomped out into the parking lot. I struggled to see who it was, and from what I could see... dark skin, black hair, tall, a guy, could be anyone... but whoever it was didn't see me and wouldn't see me if I didn't say something. I wheezed in some more air, wincing at the pain of my heart strumming and faltering.

The guy turned his head to look back at the Soundstage, and in the glow of the twisting light, I could see his familiar black eyes. I knew him... I...

"D--," I breathed, "D.J... D... D.J..." But I couldn't get it out that well. It was just a wheeze, and he turned back around and started towards the parked cars. I rolled my head back, closing my eyes in pain. And gathering all the strength I could, I yelled (which more came out like a regular voice), "Darwin... D--" It went back to a low whisper, but D.J. stopped in his tracks. He turned around and looked in my direction.

"Hail? You there?" The words were sluggish in my head, but a sudden jolt went through my veins at them.

And I had enough to cry out, "Help me.." Before any further words were choked off by my sudden wheezing sobs. Still, it was enough because D.J. ran from the row of cars and before I knew it, he was in bent in front of me. I felt his hands on my face, wiping off the tears that now flowed freely.

"What happened? What... were you attacked," D.J. asked, sounding slightly scared himself. But I was beyond words now, finally allowing myself to just stop fighting now that someone had found me. My sudden silence and slow movement to slacking scared D.J. even more, and he said, "It's okay. I'll take you to the hospital. Hold on." And I felt his arm move across my back and around my waist while he grabbed my left hand and put it over his shoulder. Keeping ahold of my waist with his right hand and my arm with his left, he slowly lifted me from the ground. I had no control of my feet, though, so I was lucky that D.J. was strong enough to hold me up.

We started towards the car. D.J. was panting a bit, more from fear of my life than the struggle to drag me along. And he said, "I brought my motorcycle, so we're going to have to jack Tony's car. I'm sure he'll find someone else to drive with. There no way you can drive with me on a motorcycle like this anyways." Tony was D.J.'s best friend; the only one besides D.J., Kyler, and me who knows D.J.'s real name. But I didn't care about any explaination at this point. My breaths were now short gasps every once in awhile, and I couldn't open my eyes anymore.

It was gaps in times from that point on. First D.J. was dragging me to Tony's car. Then we were already driving at high speed towards the hospital. Next, D.J. was carrying me and yelling for help. And then I was in a bright room, and people I'd never known were yelling something about a blood transfusion. Finally, I heard the words, "She's going under." And there was peace, quiet, and darkness...

My finger twitched. The sudden jerk of the muscle irritated me, and so I started clinching my right hand in a fist so that it wouldn't do it again. I had a piece of thick cloth in my clutch, and before I could wonder what it was, I felt a tightened pressure of hands wrap around mine. I turned my head towards the hand and slowly opened my eyes. My dad's old, grey eyes were smiling at me, happy probably that I had woken up, though I had been half-awake yet delirious awhile ago. At least, it seemed only awhile ago when D.J. had brought me here.

"How do you feel," Dad asked gently. To tell the truth, I felt as though I had a tube shoved down my throat. And I reached my hand out of dad's grip to touch my nose. Sure enough, thick tape was holding a tube that was entered through my nose, and I turned my head to see it led to a bag of gross looking creamy brown stuff. That's what they're feeding me? I'm glad I don't have to taste it. Then I noticed that my hand wasn't there. Well, it was under a thick white bandage that was wrapped all the way around my hand and wrist, leaving my fingers bare like a glove. And on my other arm was another tube that led up to a bag of 'A positive' blood; which was my blood type. And on my left forefinger was some... thing clipped on the tip that was white and glowed slightly on the inside. I think it helped with the pulse detection. But then, what were the plastic, rounded, wired things on my chest and stomach?

I was definitely in a hospital bed. And tears started to burn in my eyes as my dad just stared at me, waiting for my answer. So I said, "I didn't drink, do drugs, or even really say more than one word to strangers. I'm sorry." I wasn't sure why I was apologizing, but I think it was a sudden wave of guilt of having to force my already broke parent to pay for more hospital care. Either way, dad just gripped my hand and shook his head.

"I know. It's okay. You were my good girl, just didn't see it coming," Dad reassured. And so I calmed myself down. I looked around the room to see it dimly lit, seeing as if it were bright, it would've hurt my eyes and probably would've given me a headache. But on the seats, window, and tables were balloons, flowers, candy, and cards that flashed the words 'Get Well, Soon' on it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the candy, but it was touching that so many people had thought of me... but how did all these things get here overnight?

"How long have I been here," I sniffled, looking from the flowers to dad.

"A week and two days," dad responded, and I leaned back my head through the pillow with shock. Dear God, how can someone be asleep for that long? But I pulled my head back to look at dad.

"Well, what happened," I asked, afraid to actually know the answer. I may have been out for a week, but there's no way I could forget those peircing blue eyes and those glowing white fangs that bit into my hand. Still, I wanted to know what everyone thought had happened.

"Well, some boy who says he knows you said he found you nearly dead against the concert building. He's the one who brought you here, and lucky he did because it was almost too late," and Dad paused as if pained at the thought before continuing, "You weren't getting enough blood through your system. And your blood pressure was through the roof because of that. It's was like your heart was thinking that the reason why you didn't have blood was because it wasn't pumping good enough. And so the doctors were trying to get blood into your body when your heart first gave out. They had to revive you, but for awhile it looked like you weren't going to come back. Then you did, and they started getting blood into your system, but you stopped breathing because your airway was blocked. And while they were sticking a breathing tube in you, your heart stopped again for the longest time. But then you came back again. And after a long couple of hours, you were fine... just sleeping.

So the hospital has just been keeping and eye on your blood pressure and sugar level, seeing as the blood transfusion would be putting sugar from that person into you. Along with your medication, and we've just been waiting for you to come back. While that's been happening, they were looking at the bites on your hand and wrist. It looks like you were attacked by some sort of animal, and that's how you lost so much blood. But your wounds had been clotted so you weren't bleeding when you got here. So they were cleaning it real good, and it was as if they broke open the clot and you started bleeding again. Now they have to keep rebandaging it because it keeps opening. But I think they've gotten ahold on it by now, so I don't think we'll have to put stitches on it."

I looked at the tightened bandage around my hand, remembering the metal ball on his tongue rubbing over the bites. "I don't remember being bitten by anything," I lied. Of course I was going to lie. They'll think I probably got damaged during the bite, and started thinking up things like vampires. Then again, they would probably just say that because I was at a vampire band concert, I just replaced the animal with a vampire. Either way, there was no point in explaining something like that. I prefered to let the past stay in the past. Obviously the vampire wasn't smart enough to know how to kill me the right way, so there's luck in my life after all.

"Well, it was an accident, so I guess it's better that you don't remember it," Dad responded. Suddenly, the door to the room opened, and a man with a white coat on walked in.

The doctor grabbed a chart at the end of my bed and said, "Hello, Hailence. I'm glad to see you're awake. I'm Doctor Wells..." He had sandy blonde hair with some gray hairs starting to grow in places. His face was shaved clean so that his cleft-chin and dimples were clearly seen. And something about his smiling brown eyes made me relax a bit. He walked over to the opposite side of the bed my dad was at, and pulled out a small flashlight. "Are you feeling all right?" And he flashed the light into my eyes, sending a shock of pain into my head. I smacked the flashlight out of his hands hard enough that it flew into the wall and shattered on the floor.

"Fine, thanks," I said in annoyance. Bright light usually irritates me, but that actually hurt. Not that I meant to smack it that hard. And the doctor was looking at the broken flashlight with surprise.

"That's good... yes...," And Doctor Wells looked through the chart, pausing at the last page. "Well, I'd like to check your blood pressure and glucose level real quick, okay?" I shrugged. If he could find an unused part of my arm, he could go ahead. The doctor started on the blood pressure first. "So, do you remember much of what happened before you got here?"

"Umm... I remember spilling my cherry sno cone at the Bloodscore with Kyler... and then she left me there. We said we were going to meet up at the concert once I was done looking at the jewelry. And then I remember something about D.J... but that's about it," I lied through my teeth as the doctor pumped the manual blood pressure and started listening for my heart beat. "But I don't remember anything attacking me."

The doctor wrote down the reading, and pulled out a blood sugar level monitor, pricking my finger. "Well, it was a traumatic experience. After all, we nearly lost you twice. But you're a fighter, you pulled through, so I didn't think you would have much memory of th--," The doctor paused, frowning deeply at the monitor that was beeping with the results. He hesitated, and wrote down the reading on the chart again before staring at the chart. This worried my dad in a heart beat.

"What's wrong? Is it too low or high? Does she need something? Or is there really a poison...," Dad started shooting questions, tightening his grip on my hand. I felt fine, so I didn't think that whatever it was would be that bad. Usually I'll either start shaking if it's too low or I'll start getting reeeeaaaalllly thirsty if it's too high. Which makes it higher, ironically.

"No," Doctor Wells said with a voice of wonder, "Actually, it's fine. That's what's confusing me..." I shrugged. Apparently he's figured out I always have problems, but if it's fine, I'm not worrying about anything. Wait. I'm not worrying, am I? Weird... I thought about all the possibilities. I could become infected with some sort of vampire-induced disease. Or maybe there's a little tracker you get whenever you're bitten... and he could come back and finish me off. Anything. But still, I felt no fear. So _this_ is what adorexia is like. Nice.

"It seems that whatever bit you seemed to have DNA in their saliva that actually strengthened your immune system rather than breaking it down," Doctor Wells said, flipping through the chart. "It looks as though your melanin production is lowering, which is why you look as though you're becoming paler. We've got to watch to make sure it won't cause albinism, which it seems to be heading to, due to your hightened sensitivity to light... besides what your JRA already caused. But to add to that, for the past week, we haven't had to inject insulin. Your blood sugar seems to be staying at a normal rate, so we added more sugar to your food. The results... it seems your pancreas is actually producing insulin. I've actually never seen that happen before... Your blood pressure seems to be staying in the boundaries of prehypertension still, but it's an improvement from what you're recent readings have been. And your joints no longer seem to be swelling or inflammed as before, which is usually expected once you hit puberty anyways."

I felt a sudden inner pleasure. "And how's my stomach protein doing with B12?"

"It looks as though after a couple of standby months of just oral vitamins, we just might be able to allow you to just stick to diets of red meat and leafy vegetables," Doctor Wells said. I could do the red meat... not so much the leafy vegetables. But either way; nothing to tempt my asthma means no more asthma attacks or less of them. Wow. "It seems as though you came out of this luckier than thought possible. Now if only you could remember what bit you... but anyways, we'll keep an eye on your glucose level. This may be just temporary, so any sign of abnormalities, you call for me immediately. And if you need anything, you call for the nurse, all right?"

"Yeah, okay, but one more thing," I stated quickly, "How much longer am I going to be here, and when can I get this thing out of my nose?" And it wasn't long before I got to remove the feeding tube, now that I was awake. It was a nasty experience, but ultimately satisfying in the end. I couldn't leave until they felt that I was going to be just fine, though, but I felt great. I could... eat... _anything_. After a life of diets and constant monitoring... ANYTHING!! I should've gotten nearly killed by a vampire a long time ago. Well, I guess I would've picked Jesus' healing hands over fangs, and I prefer never to see that guy again.

At some point, Kyler jumped into the room and screamed with happiness that I wasn't dead. I was chowing down on chicken and around three different types of candy bars that dad had fetched for me. Plus a nice long drink of orange soda. I had to eat the potatoes and jello that the hospital gave me, but otherwise it was nice. The only point I got sort of afraid was when Kyler opened the blinds to the sun, and I was blinded with a sharp pain. I could handle some light, but the whole sun was killing my head. And I started panicking. Does this mean I'm a vampire? But then, if I was a vampire, I'd want to eat people. And I'd have sharp fangs. And I'd be super strong. I might even fly. But I didn't want to eat people, didn't have fangs, and wasn't completely strong, nor could I fly, so I calmed down.

When Dad left, Kyler pulled a chair up next to my bed. "You look freakishly pale. Did you talk to the doctor," she asked, poking my cheek. I looked at my arm, but I couldn't really tell if I was pale. Then Kyler, who was freakishly pale to me, put her arm next to mine, and -- sure enough -- I was a full four shades paler than her. Which was actually scary to me.

"Yeah, he said that the animal had weird saliva... might've given me a disease," I answered.

Kyler made a face, "Oh, God, you have AIDS?"

"No, not that disease," I laughed, "It might've given me albinism. Which means my hair will turn white, my eyes will turn freak blue or pink, and I'll burn if I step into the sun..." Kyler's eyes widened. "Well, I'm exagerating a bit, but to tell the truth... the doctor said I'm just showing signs of maybe getting the disease. Maybe I'll just get partial albinism." Kyler started helping me eat my hospital food. For some reason she actually liked the potatoes.

"On the other hand, I don't think I have diabetes anymore... or arthritis... or maybe even pernicious anemia," I added dully. I was starting to understand why this creeped out the doctor. People don't just heal out of nowhere, but then again, it _was _a vampire. But they don't know that. So now they'll probably start trying to get me to remember what it was. Might be on the news or something. No way. I'm not doing hypnosis. I'll be considered insane.

"That's awesome, Hail," Kyler said, at awe with the information. "So you shouldn't be here for too much longer. Maybe just another week." I nodded in agreement. We were silent for awhile, and I had stopped eating. Kyler suddenly put down the spoon and looked at me in that serious way. "So... just so you know, I was mad at you for not showing up at the concert, and I wanted to apologize for that."

I chuckled a bit, yet not finding it that funny. It was just something to add. "It's alright. I figured you would be for awhile there..."

Kyler practically jumped up in her seat. "For awhile there? You mean you remember?" Crap, I gave that away. I was never good at keeping secrets from Kyler anyways. She bent closer. "What was it? What attacked you that you wouldn't want to tell the doctor? Was it a unicorn?" I smiled weakly, my heart starting to race with indecision. Should I tell her? Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe she would just shoot it down. "Come on, Hail, you can tell me. I promise I won't even tell a soul. You know I can keep secrets."

Then again.. she is my best friend. "Okay," I said in a low voice, pushing the tray away. I lifted my bandaged hand for her to see. She looked at it in preparation. "First, do you remember how some jerk shoved past me and made me drop my sno cone?" Kyler nodded of course. "Well, you were right. I went walking around the store, practically following him except I couldn't find him to follow him. And you remember how I kept trying to ask you if you saw his fangs?"

A light went off in Kyler's eyes, and suddenly shut down. "You're not serious." I suddenly felt stupid. I knew I shouldn't have told her. But it was too late now.

"I am," I said, and Kyler scoffed in disbelief. "Look, he bit my hand and then my wrist, and he nearly killed me. There was no blood anywhere, and nobody even took notice. He drank my blood, and something about his saliva made me better than I was, while making me paler and more sensitive to light. How else are you going to explain that?"

Kyler had her mouth opened in disbelief. "You know... maybe he was one of those freaks who got his teeth professionally done. And maybe he's sick. So he likes the taste of blood; probably made him throw up later on. And maybe he has a weird disease that somehow made you better. Plus, he had white hair and was pale... is albinism contagious?"

I shook my head in frustration, "First of all, albinism is not contagious. Second of all, if he had it professionally done, then how could they grow out of nowhere? Plus, it paralyzed me when he bit me. I couldn't even fight back. So unless you can come up with an animal that can give you aspects found in vampires from what we've heard of, along with healing loads of my problems, then _I was attack by a vampire_." There was dead silence as Kyler's face turned from disbelief to shock and as I breathed deeply from my speech, sitting straight up in the bed.

The door to the room bursted open, and Pheonix, Mandy, D.J., Dad, Tony, and some other people from school crowded inside, with the mass of black laughing at something. I laid back down, using this button thing that made my bed move mechanically up for me to be half-sitting while Kyler stood up to let Dad sit down. I wasn't mad at Kyler, I just really wanted her to believe that I knew what I saw. And as she stood back to let everyone talk about how pale I was and how happy they were that I was awake, we connected eyes and I knew that when she nodded, she decided she believed me. I sighed in relief, and started listening to everyone's account of what concert I missed.


	5. Chapter 5: Who Wants To Know

**Chapter Five**

_Who Wants To Know_

I spent another week in the hospital before the doctors finally decided that all was true; I was indeed better off now than I was before that attack. And so they gave me the date of my release. At least I could dress normally and walk around now. Still, I would have to wait until around midnight before I could leave because my dad happened to work the night I was allowed to be release. And sadly I had no other family to come pick me up. Plus Kyler also had a job she had picked up while she was bored in my absence. But I could handle it

So I was leaning against the window of the hospital room, looking at the darkness that I could oddly see pretty good through. At least I wasn't albino like feared. The doctor said I just suffered a minor case of lack of melanin production, which made my copper hair more red than brown. And my brown eyes were now a very light color. I could handle that; got a nice set of sunglasses. But there goes any chance of obtaining a summer tan. At least I could eat as much sugar as I wanted, though I'm still suppose to monitor my blood sugar until further notice. And I haven't had a major headache due to blood pressure either. Not to mention that the back pain is barely there now. I feel... half-healthy.

A glance at the clock said 8:16pm, which meant that I had a nice four hours of sitting here in a room. I was sick of this room. A person is not meant to stay in one room for a long period of time. I'm just thankful that I was asleep for half that time. I still had a bandage on my hand that could pass as a cast, but I was told that once I got home, I could take it off. The wounds had healed pretty fast once it finally stopped bleeding. It appeared that cleaning the wound wasn't the best option. Apparently the saliva was also useful for clotting my wounds, and they had wiped it off. And somehow without that saliva, the teeth had some other irritant poison -- like a misquito -- that was made to make sure that the wound wouldn't clot without a fight.. until the saliva was placed on it. Kyler believed it was used for the vampire to be able to drink freely without having to keep biting me. And the clotting saliva was just so it wouldn't leave a mess. Which meant that apparently vampires are clean eaters. Eh.

Just as I was about to die of boredom, there was a knock on my door. "Yeah," I called, wondering if dad might have got off early. That would be awesome. But instead, D.J. walked into the room, looking a bit nervous. Usually someone's with him whenever he came to visit. I could still hear him yelling for help in the back of my head. I had scared him nearly to death, I'm sure.

"I heard you didn't have anybody to help you escape the clutches of the hospital, so I figured I'd come along," D.J. joked, holding his hands behind his back. "So, do you think you could ride on a motorcycle this time?"

I smiled, and then frowned. "Wait. You're serious?"

D.J. shrugged, "Yeah... I mean, if you want to, I could just drop you off at your house.. unless you're... hungry or something... we could go get something.. maybe.. if you want to... or not. I shouldn't have come; your dad's suppose to pick you up sometime..." And he started to walk out.

"Wait. No," I said quickly, and D.J. stopped in confusion. "I mean, sure. It's just I've never actually ridden on a motorcycle before, so I might become a parachute or something and fall off..."

D.J. laughed. "Come on, I'll show you." And I started to leave. We had already packed everything up and took it home the day before I was suppose to leave, so I didn't have anything to bring along. Which was good because I doubt all the flowers and balloons would do good on a motorcycle. So I followed D.J. out of the hospital and to his motorcycle.

D.J. handed me a helmet, had to help me put it on, and put one on himself. He got on the motorcycle, and I hesitated. It's going to kill me. So much for having adorexia. "Just get on behind me," D.J. coaxed, "And remember to hold on tight." I took a deep breath and lifted my right leg over the back seat. When I sat down, D.J. grabbed my foot and said, "Just put your feet right here on both sides." I listened, and then wrapped my arms around his stomach, grabbing onto my left wrist with my right hand. "Ready?"

I took in a nice deep breath and leaned my head against his back. "Ready," I said. And the motorcycle roared to life. At first I kept my eyes closed, feeling as though any second I was going to fall. Especially around the turns. But after awhile, I started getting the hang of it, and I started opening my eyes and moving with the turns instead of feeling like falling off. Soon enough, I was smiling and actually enjoying it. So _this_ is why people get motorcycles. I always figured it was a death wish.

When we stop by a food joint and got some burgers, D.J. wanted to show me someplace where we could eat. He wouldn't tell me where, but I figured D.J. didn't seem like the type of guy who would save a girl and then rape her later on, so I let him take me wherever it was he wanted to take me. And soon we were stopped at a hill full of trees. The motorcycle couldn't get through it, so he parked it there and grabbed my uninjured wrist to have me follow him through the trees. I looked at where I was stepping, slightly worried that I would step on a snake and get similar fang bites. That would be just great.

At the top of the hill, there was an almost full circle clearing, except for a gap that faced the horizon. D.J. went to the middle of the clearing and sat down, so I followed. He pointed at the gap, "It's facing West. You can see the sun setting from here." I looked at the gap, in which there was no sun... just a massive ammount of stars.

"It's kind of the wrong time to bring me here, you think," I asked sarcastically and smiled.

D.J. seemed a bit put out by that, but then shrugged, "Well, the stars are cool anyways. I usually come here to listen to music by myself. It's better than staying home and listening to the sweet music of my parents complaining about their son who definitely isn't going to end up another Darwin or Einstein." He pulled over the over-the-shoulder bag he had. It was a small one, but apparently it held an assortment of musical things like mp3 players, cd players, a mini radio, batteries galore, and different types of speakers and headphones. He got out his mp3 player, and replaced the earphone with mini speakers so that we wouldn't have to share a headset. And he turned on the player to the first song, Chevelle's 'Suffocating'. Instead of changing it like he usually does, he just put it down and let it run its course.

We started eating. I was enjoying the french fries, and staring at him. Nobody ever believed D.J. was capable of actually liking someone. Usually he just had a lot of friends, but he never seemed to be interested in anyone. Which is why I was never sure if he'd even like me. Maybe in his head, it's just friendship.

He noticed me staring at him, and said, "What?"

I shrugged, "What were you doing leaving the concert so early? Not that I'm complaining..."

D.J. didn't say anything at first. He seemed to be trying to remember the reason why he had been leaving early. "Weeeeelll, Tony and me actually were arguing about something." I waited for him to explain, even though he obviously didn't want to, and D.J. put down his burger. "I was... um... looking for you, and he said that... um... that you were just some... nevermind."

I scoffed, "Oh, come on. I can handle it. He said I was a skank, didn't he?"

"No," D.J. laughed, and then got serious, "Actually, he said you were.. just some prep girl trying to get attention by hanging out with us. And I got mad, so he said that if all I wanted to do was hang out with you, then he didn't want me hanging out with him. So I said 'Fine' and started leaving. And then I heard you." He shrugged, seeing as I "basically" knew the rest. He believed like everyone else that I didn't remember anything. "Yeah, I nearly killed myself trying to get in the car to the hospital." D.J. moved closer to me and held out his hand to show dark marks across his fingers. "Forgot to move my hand before I tried to shut the door on it." I winced.

"Ow," I said, and bit my bottom lip. "You know, I never did thank you for helping me. If you hadn't come along, I probably would've been dead by the time the concert was finished." And I smirked up at him.

"It was no problem," D.J. answered, and smiled himself, "Scary, but no problem. Would do it again in a heartbeat."

"Well, let's hope there's not a next time," I joked. D.J. bent towards me, and my kidding front automatically went to an inner scared and shy one. But I didn't move away as his lips pressed over mine in a kiss. My stomach fluttered uneasily, and my head buzzed from the sudden flush of blood from my face. D.J. moved back and smiled with a look of triumph. I hesitated, but smiled nervously. "Thank you."

"So you and D.J. kissed," Kyler stated, taking a lick from her vanilla icecream. "Ew." I wasn't sure if she was talking about the icecream or the kissing part. I pulled the hood of Kyler's black 'My Chemical Romance' jacket over my head, and pushed my sunglasses back over my eyes quickly. We were sitting on the overcross bridge that hanged over the highway. We had our legs hanging from the side of the bridge; a good distance away from the traffic on the bridge itself. I put my arms through the bar and leaned forward. The sun was directly overhead, which explained the jacket on a summer day. The sun seemed hotter on my skin than before, and I learned that twenty minutes outside leaves me with a light sunburn. It could be worse.

"Yeah, and I still don't feel like I actually, truly like him," I responded, sighing. Even with all the protection, I had my eyes squinted from the light. It's really annoying that something so unsolid could be that irritating.

Kyler shrugged. "Maybe you just have to hang out with him for awhile. Like one of those things where you have to take time before you finally realize you like him..." I didn't answer. Kyler continued eating her icecream, and I watched the massive ammount of traffic drive under us. So many people come from the same direction. Sometimes I wonder if they're actually just traveling in circles just to come back over here. Or maybe they just appear out of nowhere, like in the Grand Theft Auto games. And when they're out of my sight, they just disappear until further notice. "Well, anyways, seems like you're starting to grow attached to the color black and darkness," Kyler continued, gesturing to my clothes. I still had my skater shoes, but I was wearing a black shirt and jacket, along with dark sunglasses. Plus darkness is more interesting these days. Light annoys me, but I can see through darkness without light. Not perfectly, but better than I used to.

"I've been getting weird reactions to the attack," I said, facing towards Kyler, "I'm healthier of course, and I'm stronger. And I've almost completely ditched vegetables. I can see in the dark, and not even tape around my thumb is keeping my nail from cutting through it and puncturing my meat. I've had to clip and file them to the core practically to keep me from killing myself when I'm scratching an itch. Plus, everything smells different and seems louder. It's like I'm... pregnant or something." Kyler didn't laugh, she took this talk seriously.

"Let me see the bites," Kyler ordered, and I pulled up the jacket to show the four healed circles. Two on my wrist, two on my hand. They were going to be there forever as scars. "They sure look like vampire bites.. from what I'd think vampire bites to be. You think maybe he made you one?"

"I thought you had to drink their blood... I didn't drink anybody's blood. And he seemed determined to kill me, if you haven't noticed," I responded, covering my arms again.

"Hey, it could go either way. Maybe his saliva is like... poison that makes you into a vampire. Like in the movies and stuff. Nobody really knows what vampires are like in real life until you meet one," Kyler lectured, "Though it'd be pretty cool if you were a complete vampire. Obviously you're not. No fangs, even. So what we can gather from this is that vampires can't go in the sun, since it irritates you to death and you're not even one. And they're strong, have heightened senses, and can grow out their fangs whenever they want. But I don't know if they're all hot like your vampire was. Maybe he's a lucky one..." I smiled at her hypothesis.

"Don't forget their bite. Paralyzing, along with teeth that can make sure your wound doesn't clot, and saliva that makes sure your wound does clot," I added. We were quiet again, listening to the cars drive past. "At least I feel safe during the day knowing that none of them could sense that I was bitten and start attacking me. I'm safe knowing nobody in those cars feel the urge to drain me of my blood. Or you."

Kyler bent forward, putting her arms through the bars to look at the cars as well. Just as she did, the icecream in her cone tilted over in the hot sun and spilled out of the cone. "NO," I yelled, and with amazing speed, I caught the circle of icecream in my hand, leaving only a bit of liquid dripping through my fingers. Kyler pulled her arm back and I dropped the icecream onto the side on the bridge in between us. Kyler raised her eyebrows.

"That could kill someone," I answered her questioning look, "Haven't you ever heard on the news about some stupid kids dropping things into the highway traffic, hitting a car, and that car being startled into a wreck?" I wiped the icecream left on my hand onto the jacket.

"Hey, that's my jacket you're screwing up," Kyler said as if insulted before wiping the vanilla cream off her hand and onto her own shirt. "By the way, that was some show of reflexes you did right there. Maybe I should find a vampire to boost my body like that. Did you grow some sexy leg muscles?"

"Don't even kid about that," I ordered in disgust. We got up and started to walk off. Kyler came up behind me, stepped in front of me, and started walking backwards almost playfully.

"All right. Get your dad to let you spend the night with me Friday," Kyler suggested.

"Why?"

"If your dad wants to know, we might go watch a movie," Kyler said, moving from in front of me to beside me, "If you want to know, you're going to a party where you can finally drink without worrying about your heart stopping. It'll be nice and fun." I stopped walking. "D.J. will be there if that's any consideration." I wouldn't drink anyways. I never drink and have never cared to wonder what drinking would be like. If I want to feel the effects of alcohol, I'll get someone to hit me over the head with a baseball bat. That'll be the lack of judgement, bad coordination, and the after effect of a hangover all in one. But a party would probably help me get used to knowing that I haven't died.

I started walking again. "Fine. And if my dad wants to know, we might go watch a movie. Not that I really much care if D.J. is going to be there, but whatever. Maybe it is one of those things that takes time." And we started switching off taking turns saying the lines in Disturbed's 'The Game' song, along with me making the noises of the guitar parts. We have weird ways of entertaining ourselves.

As we walked down a random street, we spotted Tony mowing his front lawn. He seemed really hot in his baggy, dark clothes. And the sight of him reminded me what D.J. said. "Hey, Kyler, did I ever tell you what D.J. said that Tony said about me," I asked Kyler. Kyler spotted Tony as well.

"No. What?"

"Tony thinks I'm just some prep girl who wants attention and he practically thinks I'm not good enough for D.J.," I told Kyler. She stopped moving and made a face of disbelieving irritation.

"He said what?" It wasn't more disbelief against me, it was more that she couldn't believe that Tony would say that about her best friend.

"Yeah, he did," I assured her, "But I don't see what his problem is. I've never done anything to him..." But before I could finish, Kyler was walking towards Tony. I don't think I meant for her to confront him, but this should get interesting.

"Hey, Tony," Kyler called, and I mentally thought 'I like the things you do' from the Frosted Flakes theme song. Tony spotted Kyler and turned off his lawn mower. But Kyler wasn't doing a nice social call. Instead, she hauled back and slammed her fist into the side of Tony's face hard enough for him to fall back and trip over the lawn mower and onto his back. Kyler walked around the mower and kicked him in the stomach. "You think she's the one who wants attention? Who's the one who cuts themself and takes pictures of themself crying? You pussy bitch. Talk about my friend one more time and I'll run over you with your own lawn mower, poser!" And she kicked him again before coming back to join me.

As we walked off, Tony called out, "You whore!" He sounded in pain, and was holding his back as if the fall had popped something. Welcome to what my world used to be.

"Fuck you," Kyler called back, and I grabbed her arm so that she wouldn't go back to kick his ass some more. As we walked further more and turned onto another street, Kyler said, "Hail, I know what preps are like and you're not one. Plus, I don't think you're an attention seeker. Just weird."

I gasped, "Weird? Look who's talking." And we laughed. Soon we were at the entrance to my trailor park. A couple of kids from school live around here, but I never talked to them much. I waved at the old man that always shook his head when he saw me. It was kind of creepy, but he's never so much as tried to talk to me so I basically ignore him. At my trailer, Kyler got into her car.

"I'll see you friday," Kyler said, starting her car.

"Yeah, see ya," I replied and walked up the steps to my trailer. I walked into the house to dad making spaghetti. As long as there was a bunch of meatballs, I'd be fine with it. Though he likes to make it real spicy for some reason. Usually I make my own food because his is always extra spicy. I think it's because his taste buds are dying.

"Hey, dad," I said, walking behind him into the kitchen, "Do you think it'll be all right if I go to Kyler's house friday?" I put on my best innocent face possible.

"Ummm, I don't know if that's such a good idea," Dad responded, suddenly sounding uncertain and worried.

"Oh, come on," I begged, "If we do anything, we'll just go watch a movie. You know me, I don't go do stupid things. And I know now not to let Kyler out of my sight in case another animal attacks me. Please, please, please?" I put my hands together in front of him. "I haven't been over to Kyler's house since before the hospital nearly three weeks ago. It'll be just one night."

Dad didn't want me to. He had a sense that I was going to get hurt. He always felt as though I was going to get hurt. But he was going to let me because I've kept up in helping keep the house clean, and I've even been trying to find a summer job. I haven't been doing anything wrong, and I got my report card back. I actually got a 89.6 in History, which raised it to a 90, so now I'm in the top ten of rank in class. And my GPA is a whopping 3.98. There was no reason besides the feeling of not wanting to let me go -- a parental feeling -- to keep me home like a prisoner.

"Fine, but you have to be careful," Dad finally gave in, and I gave him a nice big hug, dipped my finger into the spaghetti sauce, licked my finger, and went to my room to listen to music. Friday night party, here I come.


	6. Chapter 6: Fool Me Twice

**Chapter Six**

_Fool Me Twice_

Kyler came to pick me up friday afternoon. If you haven't noticed, I haven't gotten my driver's license yet. I've been reading the book plenty enough, but I still havent gotten around to taking the test myself. But once I do, I will dedicate myself to become a halfway decent driver. If only I wasn't half-scared of getting in a car wreck and dying. Not that you can avoid it because anyone can wreck a car. Kyler nearly wrecked her car with me in it about five times now. And when she drove into my driveway, she forgot to not run over our trash bin. Her response to the accident... 'oops'.

I waved my dad off, seeing as he was more worried about this than he had been when I was going to the concert. It can be annoying sometimes, but he didn't want me to end up living in a trailor like we are now. Not that I was going to go fetch myself a nice big mansion when I'm rich. Once I figure out how I'm going to be rich. It's all the same. But anyways, before I knew it, Kyler was peeling out of the trailor park in a speed used just to scare my dad.

"I told my parents we went to see a movie and since they'll be asleep before any movie is finished, I told Mandy to tell your dad that we're asleep if he calls anytime after three hours," Kyler said to ease my mind of being caught. And if anything else was needed, I could just tell him that our car broke down on our way back to Kyler's house. And say that Mandy is stupid and thought we were in the house asleep the whole time. So we were ultimately safe.

Meanwhile, I was pulling my hair up to where only the top half of my hair was pulled up to a ponytail, and I brushed some of my bangs out of the ponytail to cover my forehead. Being my speciality, I just applied eyeliner, adding it to the top of my eyes as well, and applied lip gloss. Now that it was night, I didn't have to wear a jacket, so I pulled it off to show my black babydoll t-shirt I never wear because it's black. I kept to regular jeans, though, and my regular skater shoes. I also had on a lot of jewelry my friends had got me. I was officially as ready for a party as I was going to get.

Once I was done, Kyler said, "Take the wheel." And I was stuck controlling which way the car was going while she pulled half her hair up almost lazily with a skull pin. She had on a black, spike-styled skirt that had chains linked throughout them, along with neon purple leggings that went halfway below her knees before stopping. Her tank top was black with white letters that said "Fuck You, Bitch". Then she had purple and black striped gloves that pulled all the way up to her elbows and bared her fingers that had three different skull and spike rings. She also had thick, black, army-like boots with metal skull-zippers on the sides. There were buckles in random spots on the boots that seem to have no other purpose except style. Kyler finished the look with eyeliner, purple eyeshadow, lipgloss, black nose ring, and spiked snake bites. She looked awesome.

After she was done with her hair, she took ahold of the wheel and turned onto a road that seemed nearly hidden in a spread of trees. It was dirt road from there, leading further into the woods. Almost as if the party were in a secret place. And suddenly the trees cleared to a large driveway that led to a large, two story house. There were cars parked outside of it in massive ammounts, and so many people that the party was both inside and out. Kyler didn't want to park all the way out away from the party, so she slowly drove as close as she could to the house and stopped in the middle of the driveway just to piss off anybody who tried to drive through. She turned off the car, and I stepped outside of it to nearly get plowed down by some random, drunk guys.

I followed around the car to stand next to Kyler, who breathed in the air with pleasure. "The smell of alcohol, weed, and sex... _this_ is home," Kyler said wistfully. I consider it sewage, but whatever makes people happy. "I'm going to go find myself a drink. You go mingle." She started to walk away but turned around to face me. "And remember, get drunk. Relax. This is your vacation from near death and stress." And she was off into the crowd.

I wasn't sure what music was playing. People had their cars on, and all sorts of songs were playing at the same time. Plus I was too far away from the house to hear what was going on in there. So I stood in one spot for a moment, looking around at all the people just hollering and having a good time with themselves. But then I figured this wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I started trudging my way towards the house. I had to be careful, though, because these people were out of their minds and I was invisible at the time. So I moved slowly, pushing the disgustingly stinky people who ran into me out of my way.

And then D.J. was in front of me. "Hey, Hail," D.J. greeted me happily. But before I could say anything, Tony appeared next to D.J. laughing about something going on in the house. He had a nice bruise on his cheek from Kyler, and I had to smirk at that. And D.J. turned to me again and said, "Hey, you stay right here. I got something for you. I'll be right back." And he followed Tony towards the house. I scoffed. There's no way I'm just going to stay in one spot for some guy who is probably going to forget exactly where this spot is anyways. I continued towards the house.

It was like being in a different world. At some point, some guy shoved a cup into my hand, and I sniffed it before dropping it to the ground in disgust. There was no way I was going to drink something that smelled like acid. And as I walked up the stoned steps to the entrance of the house, someone else shoved a glass into my hand. I smiled a completely fake and slightly grimacing smile in thanks, and dumped the drink into a decorating plant before putting the cup on the plant's branch. I started for the door, which was closed shut and looked occupied by a crowd of people who were too drunk to remember how to open a door. I pushed past them, holding my arms up to protect my head in case someone spilled something on me. It was like a personal boundary feild type of thing. I was just praying that nobody turned to me and barfed their guts all over me. That would be gross.

I sighed with relief when I reached the door. I could hear extremely loud music from the inside and a smash of glass breaking. I reached for the doorknob with my right hand, but just before I could grab it, a hand wrapped around it. A jolt of shock and dread went throughout me as my hand was pulled away from the door. I turned to see his electric blue eyes no longer peircing through me, but looking at me with confusion. It was definitely him, with bleached blonde hair, blue eyes, and the snake bites. He wasn't showing his fangs and didn't seem to be about to bite me again. He just pulled my hand to him and looked at the back of it. He didn't do anything at first, but then he reached with his other hand and traced the two scars on the back of my hand. Then he twisted it over and touched the other two holes on my wrist. He held his finger there for a moment, as if he was feeling my pulse.

I knew pulling away wouldn't help me with anything, and I wanted to say something.. anything.. but I seriously couldn't think of anything to say. And before I could, he lowered my hand and moved closer to me. He said into my ear, "Don't say anything. Just come with me." The voice seemed to continue at the end and travel into my brain, attaching to my thoughts in a way that made me think of no other thing except obeying his orders. So when he opened the door, still gripping onto my scarred wrist, and pulled me through the house, I didn't even think about yelling for help or trying to run away from my doom. He walked with ease, as though everyone moved out of his way instead of him having to push through them. Soon we were through the entrance room, and he pulled me into another room full of people. It wasn't long before it clicked that he was heading for the stairs.

Before he reached the stairs, someone grabbed my left arm, and tapped on the guy's back almost angrily. I internally sighed with relief when I turned to see Kyler glaring at the guy and gripping my arm with a determined aura. The vampire turned around to look at who was stalling him, his eyes automatically peircing annoyance at Kyler, but even though she was the only other person who knew what he was, she didn't let go of me.

"Excuse me, asshole, but she's not for sale," Kyler said threatenly. The vampire stood to his height and glowered down at Kyler, but she glared back.

"You would be wise to let her go," he growled in such an inhuman way that it sent chills of fear across my skin.

"I'm not going to let her go, and I would be wise not to," Kyler snarled back, "Don't think that just because you're some vampire, you're scary. In fact, I think you're nothing but a coward and I'm not going to let you hurt my best friend again, dickface." And she shoved his chest. He didn't budge at all from his spot.

Instead, he fully turned around, still clutching my right wrist with his left hand. He moved just behind me, and pulled his left arm over my head, never letting go of my wrist, so that he had his arm around me almost in a claiming way. He lowered his head to just beside mine, smiling innocently. "I never hurt her, nor would I ever. Right, Hailence?" And I felt his breath just on my right earlobe. Something told me to lie to Kyler. Completely lie. So I did.

"He's not really a vampire, Kyler. I just said that so you'd think I was cooler, seeing as I don't seem as cool as you and the other guys. It really was just some sort of diseased animal that bit me. I just didn't think I'd be seeing him again, so I figured I'd try to creep you out, but it was just a joke," I lied convincingly, slightly smiling and ducking my head in embarrassment about admitting to the lie. Kyler just stared at me in confusion, and with a small hurt look in her expression. The vampire nuzzled my neck a little, and I added quickly, "So could you let go? I'd really like to talk to him in peace."

Kyler scoffed, "Oh, and if you know him so well, what's his name?"

I jerked my arm out her grip roughly, "Go away, you stupid bitch." It was my voice, but it was dark and uttered in such a way that reminded me of the vampire himself. Plus I'd never cuss unless I broke a bone or something, but it was enough to hurt Kyler. And she just backed up before stomping away. I could feel him smiling into my neck, obviously pleased with the result before he started back towards the stairs.

I followed him up the stairs, and down a hall before he finally stopped at a door. He opened it confidently, and ordered to the couple making out on the bed, "Get out." It was such an threatening order that they stumbled on their way out, as though dazed. But once they exited, he pulled me in and shut the door, locking it shut behind us. The dread of what might happen was starting to sink in real good at this point, and I wished I never had come here. It was a bad idea anyways. What was I thinking?

The vampire turned around, and gripped my face by the chin, his fingers digging into my cheek. First he stared at my eyes before letting go and pointing at the lamp. "Look into that light," he ordered, and I quickly looked at the light bulb. It was irritating, but it must have satisfied whatever he wanted to know because he grabbed my face again. This time he digged his fingers in further so that I opened my mouth in pain, and he pulled up my lips to look at my teeth. He ran his finger over my top canines, which had grown merely a bit sharper than they had been but not into fangs, and let go of my face. He grabbed my hands, rubbing his thumbs against my filed nails, and once again stared at the bites he had left himself. They had healed extremely fast, no longer being scabbed over like they were suppose to be, but just being two bite scars that looked as if they had been left months ago. He let go of my hands and pointed at the bed.

I sighed, giving up, and sat down on the edge of the bed before just laying back in defeat. I guess this was as interesting a death as I was ever going to hope for. I was just a bit sad that I had practically lied to my dad in every possible way. The vampire sat down on the bed next to me, laying back himself instead of attacking me like I had expecting. Maybe he was just stalling to creep me out.

"You... are suppose to be dead," he stated, looking over at me. I turned my head to look at him. "I drained you until your heart was struggling just to beat it's last bit of life, so you were suppose to have died not two minutes after I left you against that concert building. Why aren't you dead?" I felt a sudden inner freedom, as if whatever spell he had that kept me quiet had been lifted just for conversation.

"I did die. Twice," I answered shakily, "But that fluttering wasn't my heart's struggle for its last beat, it was my blood pressure acting up." He frowned at that information, not quite understand. "See, you may know my name, but apparently you didn't take the time to notice that I have high blood pressure. My heart would flutter like that for yelling at someone much less being drained."

And he smiled in realization. "So you tricked me," he stated in amusement. "You even started to struggle breathing. Was that just an act so I'd leave you alone?"

"No, that was asthma," I corrected, and he seemed even more amused by it.

His blue eyes stared at me with interest, and he asked, "So what was it like to die twice?"

I shrugged the best I could. "I don't remember. I kind of blacked out after I got to the hospital."

"And now what do you think? Now that your eyes are dialated continuously so that light hurts them, and the heightened senses? Did you think you were one of us," he asked curiously.

"Well, I didn't think I was a vampire because of some missing assets, but I knew that I was affected. But I think that it was for the better. I don't have diabetes anymore," I responded truthfully. "But the light thing is annoying."

"I'll have to agree to that, but at least you could still walk in the sunlight." I took notice to the past tense version of me being able to walk into the sunlight, and the dread sunk my heart.

"Why can't you just leave me alone? So I survived, is that so bad?," I asked, pleading.

His amusement was cleared from his expression, and now it was replaced with a blank look. He sat up, and I felt the familiar feeling of being held down on the inside, not allowing me to struggle or plead. He bent over me, lowering his lips to my left ear. "Because you know about us, and that's not allowed. Which means your friend is going to have to go as well. I am sorry, though, this time I won't let your heart fool me." And he bit into my neck. I clutched the blankets in pain, once again feeling the wave of paralysis and exhaustion. This time I could actually utter a half-sob before it was cut off. I tried to think; tried to wrap my mind around this. But this time it would be finished. He wouldn't just wait until I was near dead and leave me to die, he was going to finish it completely so that even with all the people here, none of them could save me like D.J. had.

Suddenly, someone busted through the door and spilled to the floor. The vampire lifted his head, and I felt a sudden relief from the release. "You son of a bitch," I heard Kyler growl, and she lunged at him with a bat she had found. She got a good wack of the back of his head, but it didn't seem to bother him much. He stood up, a growl of utter dislike forming from him.

I took in deep breaths before holding it to push myself over onto my stomach. I looked up at the bedside table to see a phone, and started crawling for it. Every move I made was sluggish and felt as though I had two hundred pounds of weight on each limb, head included. But I still could see and hear pretty well, probably from being enhanced the last time I was bitten. And I heard a crash against the wall behind me, followed by a scream from Kyler that was choked off suddenly with a crack. My head snapped around in disbelief, and Kyler indeed was on the ground against the wall, the bones of her neck oddly pressing against the inside of her skin as though not belonging within the neck.

Before I could do anything, he started walking towards me. I pushed myself to crawl faster across the bed towards the phone, but I realized there was no possible way in Hell that I could get to it in time. So I screamed, "No! NO! NO! SOMEONE HELP! HE--" I found talking hard when a hand wrapped around my bleeding neck, choking off any oxygen I could get. Nobody had even heard me, nor had anyone noticed the door even being broken down. The party was continuing. And I was shoved over onto my back with his face glaring at my soul just above my face.

"_You_... don't make another noise. You're coming with me," He growled angrily. And as though my voicebox had been cut out, I found I couldn't make a noise when he let go of my throat. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet. The world twisted, and I reached up to my neck, which was still bleeding with amazing velocity. He pulled my hand away, and I had to go through an uncomfortable moment of his tongue brushing that metal ball over the bite. Just like that, the bleeding stopped. And before I could touch it to see if he left any disgusting saliva trail like a dog, he was pulling me out of the room and down the stairs.

This time, the mass of people that moved out of the way without their own accord as he rushed me through the room was highly noticeable than it had been last time. And we almost made it to the front door without interruption, but then someone grabbed my left shoulder. "Hey, Hail, where'd you go? I said I had something for you," I heard D.J. ask. And he pulled away his hand, looking at it in confusion. The blood from the bite had been left on my shoulder, and D.J. had stuck his hand right in it. I was hoping, praying that he would yell for help. I needed his help. He was my only hope. "What... why are you... is that blood?"

The vampire breathed into my ear, and before I could give some sort of warning that I was in trouble, I said dully, "Nosebleeds. They get pretty bad sometimes."

Then the vampire snapped, "She isn't interested in you, dickhead. So go listen to your music and cut yourself." He grabbed my face, turned it toward him, and pressed his lips over mine. A wave of disgustion pulsed from my stomach, but something in my head was making sure I made it look believable. And he smirked arrogantly at D.J. before he started pulling me out the front door. I looked back to see D.J. look at something in his hand with a hurt expression, but nothing could be done at the time to fix that. I was being pulled through the crowds of people in the driveway, and they were thinning out the further we went out. Soon there were no other people except the ones in their cars or behind the trees.

He opened the back of a black car, and shoved me in. I landed on the seat on my stomach, and automatically struggled to open the opposite door so that I could escape. He got in on top of me, and pulled me over on my back, grabbing my wrists and pressing my hands into my stomach. "Shall we continue," he asked sarcastically. And he bent his head down to open the already made bite, but I turned my head sharply. "Fine." For a second I was hoping that was him giving up, but he just bit down on my right neck instead. Tears started burning my eyes, blurring my vision, and I tried to move my hands but he still had ahold of my wrists. I kicked out, but my feet collided with nothing. I tried to scream, but the only thing that came were gasps of air. So I stopped moving and breathing completely, deciding to try and die quickly.

In an almost slow movement, I turned my head until it rested against the side of his. I could feel his tense jaw, and the sudden stop of drawing my blood into his mouth. For some reason, he lifted his head to look at me with confusion. And then he connected his lips over mine, leaving the leftover blood from my neck to join between us. I felt nauseated, wanting to shove him off and stab him until he was peices of vampire dust on the ground. And I felt a sting on my lip, followed by a tickle of thick liquid starting to run down the sides of my mouth. I could taste the blood that had gotten into my mouth. But he didn't stay there long. As though he had to struggle to force himself away, he lingered before tracing his lip over the cut he left on my bottom lip. Then he went back to my neck, adding fresh pain as he bit down more firmly than he had before. I didn't move my mouth open in fear of choking on my own blood as I took a deep breath of pain.

It didn't last long. Before my heart had even started to flutter, I heard a growl of frustration from him as he removed his lips from my neck once again. He licked over the wound roughly, and shoved himself out of the car. He shut the door behind him, moving around to the driver's seat. I wasn't dead, but I wasn't alive either. Not that I was a vampire. It was just that I tried to move my hand to get out, and got no bigger a response than a weak twitch. I opened my mouth weakly, and struggled to swallow my own blood instead of choking on it. I still breathed some of it in before what blood had been left on my lips were no longer flowing into my mouth, and had enough strength to cough weakly.

The car started. He wasn't killing me here... but I was wondering why not. He had the chance, so why stop? Is there something in vampire's minds that makes them think we thoroughly enjoy this? Newsflash: I prefer to be dead.


	7. Chapter 7: For Keeps

**Chapter Seven**

_For Keeps_

I was almost sure that I was going to fall any second during all the twists and turns at high speed. I couldn't exactly just sit up and put on a seat belt. Plus, I was starting to see things. Every street light that flashed by seemed to be smiling at me. Then again it could be the souls of heaven preparing to greet me. I never thought of death that way. I mean, I have been baptized in case that's needed. And as far as I'm concerned, I haven't broken any major laws of entrance to heaven. Except I have recently lied... crap, if I'm sent to Hell for that reason, I will never forgive myself. I started mentally praying for forgiveness of that lie and any other lie I may have uttered. I admitted I have a problem with lying, and will try to get therapy for it... and maybe even a priest. At least I don't cuss unless a vampire is altering my mind. I'm still a virgin, and the only way I could have murdered someone is by using canned hairspray that aided in destroying the ozone and gave someone skin cancer. I asked for forgiveness for that as well, just to put it in there. In the name of Jesus Christ, the holy ghost, and God himself, amen.

The vampire guy -- still haven't figured out his name and probably never will -- didn't say a word to me. In fact, the obvious frustration at something was the only thing that seemed to be related to me at the moment. All he did was use a peice of cloth to wipe of any blood on his face. Thanks for sharing. But whatever he was annoyed about seemed to be rushing towards somewhere. Maybe he'll just throw me over a river. Hopefully not into the middle of a highway. If an icecream cone could cause a wreck and kill someone, I would probably kill five.

I felt a bit unconnected to the world. It was kind of like being high... or if my dad asked, what I would figure being high would be like. Everything didn't seem to be on the same plane as me. I seemed a bit higher, floating over the distance, yet not in that way where neardeath people say they were floating over their body. I was definitely still in my body, and not floating anywhere, but my head felt a bit floaty. It was just like the dizzy spells I got except without the black spots just yet.

The car braked to a sharp stop, and turned off. The vampire got out of the car and seemed to take a moment before opening the back door. And here's where he finishes me off. When he reached into the car to grab me, I attempted one last time to get him to not kill me. But the only thing I could get out was a weak stream of, "Please don't. Please. Please don't. Please, please..." I felt like a mess, with blood on my mouth and tears burning down the sides of my eyes. But he didn't stop and leave. Instead, he growled and pulled me out of the car. He pulled my left arm over his shoulder before picking me up. I gave up with the pleading and leaned my head on his shoulder.

I didn't feel like twisting my head to see where we were, but it must have been a house because I heard a twist of a door knob and the sound of him kicking open the door. I felt a sudden cool of the house, both tension-wise and physical. And when he carried me through the open door, I heard something else scuffle into the room. He paused, and there was no sound for a second.

Then, "What the hell are you doing?" It was the silky voice of a girl, who obviously wasn't happy with what she was seeing. Was she another vampire? She seemed to know the vampire carrying me. "Why'd you bring food here? Are you becoming stupid or something?!" Definitely another vampire, or a cannibal. Whatever it was, the vampire holding me merely walked past her, leaving her to scoff in disbelief. I heard her call out something of a sort, but it was drowned out from my ears by the scraping of chairs being moved. He continued to carry me wherever, but I still didn't look.

Suddenly, he lifted my legs onto a hard surface, and I moved my head to take a look at where I was going. It was a kitchen counter, except placed in a way that circled around the kitchen to the middle so that there was no wall against this part. He swiped off all the stuff on top without much care, and laid me completely on the counter, resting my head suddenly gently on the hard surface. He still looked frustrated, but wasn't expressing it physically or verbally. Instead he seemed to have gone soft, moving my arms to where they were placed comfortably by my sides, and brushing back the hair from my face. I hate him. But all I wanted to do was sleep rather than try to hop off the counter and probably break something in the process.

More than one set of footsteps were moving rapidly towards the counter. From what it sounded like, it was a mixture between stomping and just walking leisurely. The vampire moved away from me, as though presenting me to someone, and my heart started to pulse faster. Hopefully I'm not going to be some big meal for someone. That would be worse than just being fed on by one pair of fangs. Imagine having more than two at the same moment, drawing out your life with a hunger... like Satan pulling out souls to feed upon. Okay, a bit exaggerated, but that's how I think of it.

"What's this? You know our rule about bringing the food home. Imagine if some stupid authority food came along and found a dead girl here. We'd have to move again, is that what you want," a dark, powerful woman's voice questioned angrily. It wasn't the first girl who had questioned him, but still was a vampire as well. I closed my burning eyes and rolled them over to look in their direction. I wanted to know how many were here. There was my vampire, who seemed to be one of the tallest of the bunch and looked a bit confused. Then there was a woman who was just about as tall as my vampire, but not quite there. She must have been the latest one to question him, with her voice booming with power, which could mean she ran the joint. She had short black hair that was cut just to the chin. Her nose was narrow and sharp, almost adding to her authority status, and her eyes were a dark blue that wasn't even half as interesting as my vampire. Not that I was comparing... as if I would have pride in a vampire who tried to kill me twice or three times, if you count after Kyler's interruption. I got a flash of Kyler's twisted neck, and closed my eyes in pain for a moment.

The only other girl there was extremely beautiful, even with the annoyed expression... along with something else that I couldn't identify. She could be the beautiful sculpture of an angel, with golden blonde hair, thick, red lips, and almost glowing green eyes. Her skin seemed to be glowing as well, and she seemed to be dressed like the girls would on MTV. She had golden jewelry, hoops, layered shirts, black jean capris with shoe strings tied through bought rips, and fur boots. I looked away quickly when she glance at me in the corner of her eye with that expression that I couldn't name.

And there was one more, who seemed to be the only one without an expression of annoyance, rage, or confusion on his face. When I looked at him, he didn't growl or glare, he just stared with a certain curious yet sad look. He would be considered a jock at my school, with his short, sandy brown hair, well built body, and school letterman jacket on. His eyes were a pleasant, caramel brown that seemed to make me feel safer than before. But then I figured it was just some tactic he used to eat people, so I went back to closing my eyes from my doom.

"I thought I killed her, but..." my vampire started, and I nearly screeched when I felt a cool hand grasp my right hand gently on the opposite side of the counter that all the vampires had been on. I opened my eyes weakly to see it was the jock vampire, who must have speed of light along with quiet of air. My vampire moved protectively closer, while the other two moved around the counter with displeasure. The jock traced the scarred bite on the back of my hand before turning it over to trace the other. And without a word, he gently moved my head from side to side, examining the other two bites before lightly touching the cut on my lip with his thumb. Then he moved away from me.

"How long have you been after her," the jock asked almost painfully.

My vampire hesitated, but said, "Three weeks ago, I found her and I thought I had killed her, but she has heart problems that I didn't know about so when it fluttered, it turned out that she wasn't exactly on the brink of death, just acting up earlier. And then I found her again tonight, and went to finish her off..."

There was silence. "Well, do it," the powerful woman ordered strongly, no longer interested in the matter, "But get rid of the evidence." And she seemed to be finished with the mess. I strongly disagreed with her. Let me go instead. But I kept quiet, not feeling up to wasting my breath.

Nothing attacked me. "But I can't," my vampire admitted in frustration.

"What's that suppose to mean? You obviously know how to bite her, just drain her dry. And if you're not hungry, suffocate her or something. Humans are really easy to kill," the woman stated in annoyance.

"I can't. I tried, but I can't. I don't know why... I just can't," he tried to explain, and I felt a sort of inner relief.

"I'll do it," the angel vampire volunteered readily, almost eagarly. My relief vanished as she grabbed my arm.

"Oh, no you won't," my vampire snarled, stepping in front of her and pulling my arm out of her grasp. "Don't think I haven't noticed that look on her face. I know what you do to humans like her." And there was a growling match.

"Fine," the powerful vampire snapped, "Let Mikel do it. He is a mercy killer anyways, and you said she had heart problems. He'll be gentle as can be and you can rest your mind in knowing she died mercifully. He'll do it, won't you, Mikel?" And Mikel -- the jock, I assumed -- was on the other side of the counter in a flash. He frowned at me, thinking on the offer. He didn't seem happy about the chance, which gave me hope. He traced his finger over my throat, and I winced at the sudden pain. At first I thought Mikel had done it, but then I remembered that my vampire had been the one to nearly break my neck.

"I'll do it," Mikel suddenly agreed, and the dread settled in. They all waited for my vampire's opinion, and when he didn't say anything, Mikel gently grabbed my left arm; the only arm not marked by bites. My heart started pulsing faster the closer my wrist got to his mouth. My breath became shorter in fear, but more rapid. And when he bit into my wrist, it was a sharper pain than when my vampire had, and I twisted my head sharply away, biting down on nothing, folding my legs closer to my bottom, and clinching my hands into tight fists. But that was all the strength I had to use. The draining was stronger this time than it had been with my vampire, and I gasped with pain. The black spots started clouding my vision, and my heart started stalling rather than fluttering, as if feeling the tug of the blood itself. Breathing was becoming harder, and my fists started loosening.

"Stop," I heard, "Stop it." For a moment, I thought it was amazingly me, but then I noticed it was a male voice and I hadn't gotten a sex change in the last five seconds. "I said STOP." And the fangs were ripped out of my wrist, causing me to let my legs fall back to being straight in release. I blinked rapidly, willing my heart to go back to normal. It had been a struggle, but apparently Mikel hadn't pulled out enough blood for my heart to start fluttering in struggle for life like before. When I glanced over, I saw that Mikel had his face pressed against the wall, but nobody was holding him there. He seemed to be trying to get control of himself.

"I want to keep her," my vampire stated as if ordering that they should allow this to be doable. "It's not unheard of, keeping food for awhile instead of killing it off automatically. So I'm keeping her, not killing her. Got that?" There was silence; Mikel still was clinging to the wall, unmoving, while the other two vampires were glaring at my vampire, who was standing in guard in front of me.

The powerful woman slowly crept in front of my vampire, completely displeased by this outburst. "You," she poked his chest with rage, "You can keep her all you want, but if it interfears with your Rising, I will personally destroy her in front of you."

"She won't," my vampire promised, sounding pleased that he could keep me. I felt a nosebleed coming.

"And if she so much as attempts to escape or interferes with any type of business in any way that is displeasing, we'll kill her with or without your permission. Understand?"

"Understood." There was more silence.

"Get her out of our sight," the woman ordered thickly. And my left arm was pulled over my vampire's shoulder before he picked me off the counter. I could feel the blood still leaking from the unclotted bite on my left wrist, and it was most likely being dripped onto the back of my vampire's shirt. I hope he enjoys that. As he carried me up the stairs, I couldn't stand fighting against the darkness, and leaned my head against his shoulder before letting my body shut down.

Just when my vampire and I were out of distance, the three other vampires hovered just at the base of the stairs, looking towards the direction we left. The woman seemed displeased, the girl bothered, and Mikel pained. The woman looked at Mikel curiously. "I've never seen you enjoying a meal so well before, Mikel. Want to share with us what it was," she asked humorously. It made Mikel flinch with guilt.

"It rushed in my mouth... ready to be devoured, and I wanted it," he said before leaving the house in disgust.

The woman chuckled darkly at his leaving. "He's used to the diseased and the old. The young, healthy blood startled him. And the blood pressure probably helped in that," she told the girl. At the expression on the girl's face, she stopped chuckling. "Don't worry, dear. She'll screw up, and when she does, you'll be the one who gets her. And you can do what you're good at."

"And enjoy it," the girl snarled jealously.


	8. Chapter 8: Getting To Know

**Chapter Eight**

_Getting To Know_

I felt oddly comfortable. Some sort of soft pillow was surrounding my head, making me feel safer than lately. Then whatever I was laying on seemed to hug the edge of my body protectively and gently, making the soft cloth resting over me finish the touch of ultimate comfort. I turned my head, not sure if I wanted to open my eyes. This feeling may just be imaginary and once I open my eyes, it could disappear. But the ultimate comfort did disappear when I moved to reach for the cloth that covered my body up to just under my breast. See, one hand did partially grab it... meanwhile, my right hand got choked by some tight wire that had the back of my hand pressed against a wooden pole type of thing.

My eyes shot open, and I looked at my hand before anything else. Sure enough, there was a thin wire that could resemble fishing wire wrapped around my hand, keeping me to this... bed. And even though I felt loads better now than I had before I slept, that wouldn't help in freeing me because from first glance I could tell that there was no knot to fiddle with. It was Satan wire; made specifically for vampires to keep innocent people tied to their bed. I tugged on it a bit, but quickly refrained to giving up earlier than usual.

"It was just in case you woke up and tried to run when I was gone awhile ago," I heard from beside me, and I turned sharply to see my vampire laying on his stomach on the bed almost boredly. I looked at myself quickly to make sure I wasn't missing any limbs. No, they all were there, and even the blood was gone. Luckily I wearing the same clothes, so that meant I wasn't stripped naked while I slept. I was relieved at the moment. "It's about time you woke up. I almost thought that you had decided to go into a coma. I would've killed you if that had happened. No use of keeping a person who isn't even really alive in the first place." He reached towards me and I flinched, but he merely tugged on the wire with what seemed like an effortless tug... it came off like water. I pulled my hand to me and rubbed my wrist. There would be a mark, but since I didn't struggle, there was no open wound.

"So, in case you weren't fully aware previously, you're going to stay with me until further notice," he said almost triumphly. If I wasn't afraid that he would attack me again, I would tell him to stuff a pie up his nose and ditch this joint. Instead, I just stayed quiet and thought the message. My vampire seemed to be waiting for a response, but when he didn't get any, he continued. "And also, in case you didn't hear before, the only way I get to keep you is under conditions. So if you want to try and escape, first you'll fail, and then whoever gets to you first will most likely kill you. Depends who gets to you first. All right?"

At first I didn't answer in bitterness. Then I figured the silent treatment would never last too long, so I asked, "Who will most likely kill me?" I like to be warned ahead of time. But I quickly added, "Not that I'm going to try to escape."

He scoffed in disbelief, "I'm sure you will. But out of the five vampires in this house, three of them would be glad to kill you in a heartbeat. Maybe four. It depends on whether or not you've gotten on my bad side." I stared at him, not caring much for the threat. I waited for him to continue. First of all, I thought there was only three others, but apparently there was four more... sooo... "Which ones would kill you? Well, Cecilian would just because she doesn't like humans. Katha would because she doesn't like you. And Drewdon would because... well... he likes whatever blood he can get. So when you try to escape, try to get caught by Mikel or me. Mikel would be your best bet. Unless you're dying already. Then you should try to get caught by me, unless you know I would kill you. Then you should hope you get away, even though you won't." He smiled in amusement of my expression.

"So in another words, anybody would possibly kill me," I suggested in doom.

"Oh, no. Just don't try to escape when you're dying. That way you have a one in five chance of not being killed," he assured certainly. But then he hesitated. "Well, then Mikel would bring you to me anyways, and if you pissed me off, you'd probably die. So don't piss me off and don't try to escape with you're dying... and don't get caught by Cecilian, Katha, or Drewdon."

I propped my head up on my hand to face him incrediously. "But wouldn't trying to escape get on your bad side?"

"Most definitely," he responded humorously, "So you get my point?"

"Yeah. No escape," I answered. I looked quickly around the room we were in. It seemed normal enough; with posters of bands on the wall, black carpet, c.d.'s and clothing thrown everywhere. Apparently the only partially clean area of the room was the bed. But I did take notice to the fact that there wasn't a window in here. "If I'm going to be staying here for awhile, can I know about those who will be here as well?" I hate his guts.

"About your housemates," he restated, and he rolled over on his back. "Well, Cecilian is the bitch of the house. She's the one with the short, black hair and the voice that says 'I am better than you. Worship me.' She's only been a vampire for around fifty-six years, but she believes she's the master at it. Ultimately, all she's concerned about is the power of vampires and the destruction of humans... at least she wishes. At first, I was never sure why someone would want to turn her, but Mikel says that she was attacked one night and lived. She ended up spending a great deal of her life searching for vampires after the attack, and when she found one, she attacked him, kept him as a lab rat, and ended up using his blood to turn herself into one of us. It was all for the power, though. And she likes to overpower people, so usually she attacks the strong men for food.

"Katha is the real demon of us all. She's the blonde beauty, but on the inside she's a jealous killer. When Katha was human, she was supposively a very ugly girl, but it turned out that all she needed was a little time and immortality before she was godly. A vampire turned her based on sympathy because she was dying a leper around 150 years ago. Since then, she's based her killings on those of jerks who reminded her of the men who would throw things at her for fun. And one other vice: jealousy. Which is why you should be afraid of her."

I frowned, "Because of jealousy?"

He smirked slyly, "Katha believes no human should be pretty. She believes that only immortals should be allowed the ability to be physically attractive. So she likes going after pretty, teenage girls, and instead of just drinking their blood, she completely destroys their physical attributes that make them beautiful before killing them. Notice the before part. She likes to hear them feel their punishment for having the beauty she never got to have as a human. And as for why you should be worried... she thinks you're too pretty for a human. So she's just itching for the time to rip your face from your skull and more." I bit my bottom lip. Self esteem issues lead me to believe they're just saying that to make me nervous.

"Anyways," he continued, "Katha was the one who made Mikel a vampire. Most of us agree that it was a bad choice. Mikel isn't made to be a constant killer, and it will probably be the reason for his early death. But Katha made him because he reminded her of the one who made her, so instead of being unselfish and letting him live in peace of mind, she forced him into vampirism. For the longest time, he wouldn't kill at all. Then again, when Mikel was made, he was made to naturally torture humans. His fangs are wider and longer than a lot of others, so when he bites someone, it's more painful than most vampire's bites." I looked down at the wide holes of the freshest bite on my left wrist, remember the electric pain when he had bit himself.

"So he just starved hisself, and Katha started to get really worried. I was the one who suggested the mercy killing theory, seeing as someone who would be dying would be used to the pain he would give. And so now he'll only kill a person if they're terminally ill, dying physically, in a vegetated state, or just plain old. It still bothers him, no matter how he puts it in his head, so I believe one day he'll just walk into the sunlight and fly away in the wind as ashes. But that's why he'll be one of the last vampires in this house to worry about; he wouldn't kill you unless he had reason to believe it would be a mercy killing. And even then, all you'd have to do is beg for survival and he wouldn't be able to handle it.

"And the last vampire in the house is Drewdon. He'd actually the leader of this whole Draele group. See, even though we're not actually related, we share the same last name. And whenever we're on our own, we'll be able to go under whatever name we want. But anyways, Drewdon usually stays hidden inside his own area. He'll go out to feed a lot, but it's never in a specific order. While Mikel does the mercy killing, Cecilian does the overpowering of powerful people, and Katha kills beauty and beasts, Drewdon will go for whatever is in front of him. Not that he believes in equality; he just believes humans are all the same and diserve to die equally. Which is why him and Cecilian get along fine. I don't think you've seen him, yet. He'll be the dark, depressing one with all the glares and growls. I do a pretty good immitation, but he masters it all. And nobody knows how Drewdon came along. He seemed to have shown up sometime in the early 1720s. I think he could have been a nice human, but probably changed to be breeded into vampires-shall-rule living. He kinda looks at me like his son for some reason, but I think he's just doing it to be a sneak. I haven't fallen for it though.

"And that's about all there is to know about your roommates," he finished off. It was all very interesting and slightly creepy, but I wasn't finished.

"You forgot one," I informed him.

He smiled in amusement, "And who would that be?"

"You forgot you," I replied. "Unless I'm not much mistake, Mr. Draele, you live here, too."

I stared at him expectantly, and he sighed. "_I_ am Evanen. I am the unique one of the group, I guess you could say, because while everyone had been turned to vampires and then killed, I have killed since I was born." He smiled evily, moving closer towards me with a sly motive flashing through his eyes. He was trying to scare me, and it was kind of working. "See, while everyone had been humans who were turned to vampires, I was born a vampire. I've never known what the sun feels like on my skin, indeed, I wouldn't have ever known what it looked like if it wasn't for tv and pictures. I've never known how it felt like to be blind in the dark, or the pain of illness. I've never felt the urge for food except when it came to blood. I've never felt the comfortable pleasure of being warm..." He traced a cool finger over my warm cheek with a sudden flash of envy in his eyes. It was gone the next second, though.

"I like going after the average disturbed teen, such as these gothic, emotional, punk, rocker types. And I dress to match so that I didn't look out of place when I'm hunting. And usually... _usually_, once I've made a decision on my prey, I never change my mind. I've been a vampire for the 19 years of my life. And once I turn 20, everything will change," he finished. Evanen. He moved back a bit, no longer engaged in making me nervous. After I thought about it, I realized that I could fall in love with him. Protective, cute, and disturbed. It's the usual bad boy I tend to fall in love with, so it would be easy. I could... but I wouldn't. It's not the matter of actually falling in love with him, where you literally fall without meaning to. It's more of the fact that you can actually control who you like with logic. And logic tells me this is more than a bad boy; it's a complete and total asshole who killed... my... best... friend.

And suddenly I turned away from him, grabbing my head to hold in the scream of rage that had suddenly boiled from my stomach. I could fall in love with him, but at the same time I could bash his head in with a tire iron. Logic tells me that neither is going to happen, so instead of screaming, I just let my mind's ear listen to the inner screaming. 'Attack him. Go ahead and attack him. Life isn't worth living anyways.' My inner demon was bugging me again. 'Attack him, die, and go to Hell. It happens.' And I felt Evanen's cold hand grip my shoulder lightly.

"What's bothering you," he asked curiously rather than with concern. Well, let's see. You're a vampire. And you've ruined my life. Thanks.

"You went off track," I said through my clenched teeth, not turning to look at him.

"I did?" Evanen moved away from me in confusion.

"You said you usually go after the gothic, emotional, rocker, punk teenagers," and I turned over to glare at him, "Do I look like _any_ of that?" He stared at me with a sudden interest. As if pointing this out was amazing to him. "Well? Do I?" He didn't answer. He just started to smirk. "Why couldn't you have just left the store and gone next door to the mass of disturbed teens at the concert? Why'd you have to push your way into my life?"

Evanen moved closer to me, all the time looking as though I were the best birthday present he had ever gotten. He planted his face directly in front of mine, looking at my now lighter brown eyes with his electric blue ones. "Because you made the mistake of following me," he reminded. When I didn't make any response, he looked down at my lips in thought. Try to kiss me and I'll knee your vampire nuts. "See, what undisturbed teenager goes out to follow an obviously hostile guy after that hostile guy growls at her, even baring fangs? And to put it honestly, I didn't mean to do that... the showing the fangs bit. So when I noticed you following me, or trying to, I figured you knew I was a real one instead of all the fake humans walking around the store. So you may not look like the type I usually hunt, but a person always enjoys a twist in their meal every once in a while."

I sighed, moving onto my back to look at the ceiling. How do I say this without embarrassing myself? "It wasn't... it wasn't the concept of being disturbed on my part that made me follow you," I tried to explain the best way I could. "See, I've always been drawn to people who are weird... unique or disturbed in their own way, which is why I feel normal hanging around with all those people. And I was drawn to you because... well..." I looked sideways at Evanen, and he smiled arrogantly. Probably thinking I was meaning that he was hot, which is why I followed him. So I turned to face him like he had me, a slight smirk on my own face. "Because what undisturbed person shoves a random girl hard enough to lose her sno cone, and then growls at her for looking at him?" And I had gotten back at him verbally, though this thoroughly amused Evanen to no end.

"Well, well.. if you think we're ready to move on to another subject besides accusing each other of being disturbed, how about we find out what else we'd like to know," Evanen suggested, and I raised a brow in question. He got the picture and said, "As in I don't know absolutely everything about my own Hailence besides her name.. and not even all of that itself."

I decided to do the basic summary similiar to how he had summarized himself. "I am Hailence Wyn Truit, if you must know. Similar to you yet not similiar, I have spent my whole life as a human. It's not uncommon, so it doesn't exactly make me unique, but I'm still proud of it. I have never felt the eternal cold, the inner turmoil of taking life, the knowledge of eternal damnation both before and after death, the urge for the taste of constant blood, the feeling of not being able to enter the sun without exploding into ashes, or the ability of never becoming ill. In fact, for a long time I was a planet of illnesses, pulling them to me with a gravitational force like a magnet. I always figured my body was trying to quit on me, and if I just let it, I would've been gone long ago. I had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, Asthma, Polyarticular Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Essential Hypertension, and Congenital Pernicious Anemia. Along with that, most of my life I've had to merely depend on my dad to take care of me because my mother disappeared from my life when I was five. So I believe the reason why I'm around disturbed teens so much is because I can't express myself while they can, and so I feed off of their expression in order to get by in life..."

Evanen listened with interest, and when I finished, he seemed to be automatically ready with a question. "Do you know where your mom is?"

I shrugged, "I've got a basic idea... which is a radius of about 2,000 miles around from where I live... lived." And I smiled sarcastically.

"Well, do you ever want her to come back," he asked sincerely.

I frowned at him, unsure why he wanted to know about my lost mother. "It's not like in the movies or books, Evanen. I've never made a goal in life to hunt her down and hug her and tell her how much I missed and needed her in my life. As far as I'm concerned, she's dead. And if she's not, good for her, because I prefer not to know. And it's not like I'm mad at her or anything, but I figure that if I can live this long without her, what's the point of having her in my life anyways? Obviously she didn't want in it in the first place. So I've accepted her escape from my life, and I couldn't care less." And I was officially done with that subject. But something seemed to click in my mind, and I looked at Evanen with interest instead. I sat up straight on the bed to ask, "What about _your_ parents? Did you ever know them?"

I hit something in him, and all emotions of interest, amusement, and humor erased from his expression, being replaced with a complete lockdown. He no longer seemed to want to talk with me, but he leaned towards me almost angrily and growled, "Why would I care about my parents? I'm a monster after all, and monsters don't have parents." And I lowered my eyes to my hands so that I wouldn't have to look at that cold expression on his face. I heard a click, and quickly looked back up to see that he had vanished from the room.

I stood up for the first time in a while, feeling the soft carpet against the flat of my foot, and softly walked to the door. Quietly and carefully, I twisted the door knob. It wouldn't twist far before it would lock up, not allowing me to open the door. He had locked it. So I turned back around and looked around the room again. It looked like a normal teenager's room; a messy one at least. The only source of light was from the lamp next to the bed, and I had no idea what time it was. I sighed and went back to the bed, moving under the blanket completely, curling together, hugging my knees to my chest while laying sideways, and waited for sleep to take me away from this world.

If I hoped of surviving here, I was going to have to make as many friends as possible. Katha was probably out of the question, but Mikel would be a suitable helper. I wouldn't know about Drewdon, and Cecilian seemed to really not like me. But maybe if she saw that I wasn't just some stupid human -- complaining, crying, and trying to escape constantly -- she would come to like me in time. And the more friends I had, the more chance I had that they might agree to let me go; trust me enough to know that I would never tell a soul about this. As for Evanen, I couldn't be sure about him. I could try to be good friends with him, but it would be harder than trying to be friends with a vampire who had once been human. He wouldn't understand some things about being mortal. But I could try, and as long as I could handle what would probably come at me, then I just might have a chance. Once I can get out of this room.

And if things didn't start looking better after awhile, escape shouldn't be too hard. Right?


	9. Chapter 9: Shaking Off The Leaves

**Chapter Nine**

_Shaking Off The Leaves_

I felt the blanket being pulled off gently from over my body, and a cold hand gently gripped my upper arm. With a small shake, I moved from on my side to my bank, rubbing my eyes sleepily. Apparently not even the earlier death sleep had been enough for me. I opened my eyes to see a much more calmed Evanen, who seemed to be up to something.

"Come with me," he whispered, and I nodded curtly. Except I was following the order on my own accord, rather than the controlling tug that had been in my head when he had been trying to kill me. He trailed his hand to my wrist and helped me off the bed before leading me out of the room. I was wide awake with curiousity, mixed along with fear, distrust, and hope in one banana split.

We tiptoed -- well, I did, seeing as I'm not as lithe as a vampire -- down the hallway, and I assumed we were trying not to let the others know I was out. I guess I'm really not welcomed here; how homely. Evanen led me down the stairs one step at a time, pausing every other step and moving to a certain degree that I had to copy so that none of the stairs creaked. And for a moment, I thought he was leading me out of the front door, to freedom. As though he'd changed his mind about keeping me for himself. But the hope was demolished when he led me around the stairs and towards an unknown section of the house. Of course, most of it was unknown, but this section was definitely unknown to me.

Finally, he did reach a door that led outside, but when he pulled me out of the door and into the darkness, I noticed the line of large, privacy induced fences that would slow me down if I tried to run. At this point, I had given up any indication of being let go, so my curiousity as to where we were going was at minimum enthusiasm. The land in this section started out empty, but then stretched to a blend of trees. Evanen led me through these trees, but instead of being a vast forest, it ended rather shortly to surround a large, rectangular area of a garden. There were benches on the outer edge of the rectangle, followed by bundles of flower bushes, sprinkles of colored plants -- sorted in a pattern around the rectangle. Then there was a small distance of flat land with concrete benches placed randomly before leading to another rectangle line of plants. And it ended with more benches that surrounded a circular pond in the middle of the garden, with a fountain installed in the middle.

Without having to lead me, I moved with awe into the vast beauty of the garden. The place seemed to be sprinkled with lightning bugs, along with songs of crickets and toads. I even got glances of resting butterflies in certain plants. I made my way to the pond, bending down to look at the outer part. Some frogs leaped into the water in sight of me, but I took no notice. The fountain caused easy ripples to vibrate through the water, but it seemed to fade just before hitting the outer edge of the pond, where the lily pads rested on top of the water. I touched the surface of the cool water, spotting the sudden nervous movement of the fishes within it. For a moment, it would seem as if there were stars in the water itself, but common knowledged told me it was just a reflection.

I suddenly took notice of my reflection. My hair was a mess, being oily from being unbathed, and probably completely swallowing the ponytail holder with random barbed protection by now. Plus, it wasn't doing a good job at hiding the unhealed bite marks on my neck. My face seemed slightly sickly, probably because the eyeliner -- though cheap, but efficiently better than most eyeliners I had tried -- was smeared under my eyes in such a way as to not even pass as eyeliner smears, but as druggie bags. My lips were dry, seeing as I hadn't drank anything in a while since I hadn't even ate or drank anything before going to the party itself, and there was a slightly darkened mark on my bottom lip compared to the paleness of my chapped lips where Evanen had bitten it. My skin was sickly pale, probably from losing so much blood and gaining stress. And when I looked down at my clothes, I saw that even though the shirt I was wearing was black, you could still tell a considerate darker trail where blood had been spilled onto it, along with the area that tied in the back was hanging limply and untied. At least it was just for decoration instead of needed to keep my shirt on... Even my pants had blood spots on it from where I was bitten on my wrist. I hadn't even realized I wasn't wearing any shoes. I looked like a beaten up... hobo or something. I was even missing some jewelry, though most of it was still on.

"What do you think," Evanen suddenly asked from behind me, obviously expecting praise from me.

"Needs work," I responded, but then realized he was talking about the garden, not me. "Oh, I mean, it's really... big... and pretty. Looks like it took a lot of thinking." I looked behind me and up at Evanen. He was looking around at the large garden slowly with thought.

"Yeah, Katha made it as a gift to Mikel," Evanen informed me, sounding unimpressed. "I never understood why exactly, but it was something about making him feel more human with the life and beauty of this place. Which is kind of stupid seeing as these plants aren't actually living.. more like surviving." I stood up slowly, walking over to a bench before sitting down. Evanen followed, sitting beside me.

"I can see how you'd think that plants don't actually live. Seeing as they stay in one spot while most people consider living as actually doing things that make a difference in their life; like bungee jumping or finding joy in their life. Or feeding," I responded slowly, wondering how you explain to a vampire who has been dead his whole life why nature would make someone feel alive. I sighed. "I like to think of it as though plants actually had a choice in their life at one time; before they were being destroyed and bothered by us. And maybe they found their content in staying in one spot to listen to other lives around them, and live peacefully. So when I sit out in a... garden or just a place like this..." I looked around at the trees, almost confusing myself. "I guess I think of it as choosing what they chose. Not having to move about, wondering what my purpose is, and just being at peace."

Evanen scoffed. "It's called dying." And there goes the peaceful mood. That's what happens when you put someone who has never lived before in nature.

I laughed at the smart ass remark. Oh, I hate him so much. "Well, how do you know death is peaceful, unmoving, and unconfusing," I asked sarcastically.

"Well, a corpse doesn't seem to move, nor does it seem stressed or confused," he answered.

"On the outside," I argued, not quite wanting to think of him knowing what corpses look like by experience. "Anyways, I think the love of nature is also kind of partial jealousy, if you want to know. Like... trees..."

Now Evanen looked at me with disbelief. "Why would someone be jealous of being a tall, wooden thing thats only exciting moments in its life is when it sways in the wind during a storm?"

"Nevermind." I felt stupid about mentioning it.

But now Evanen was interested, and he nudged me. "No, come on. Why are you jealous of a tree?"

I didn't answer for a moment. "Well, it's more about its habits rather than its ability to stay in one spot in content for lifetimes after lifetimes... if it isn't bothered. Like, take its seasonal shedding for example. These trees have all these beautiful leaves that kind of remind me of people and memories. And through the life of the memories, there are those leaves that are torn up through hard times, like storms. Then there are leaves that are eaten away at by others to satisfy their own needs, like catepillers. And you have leaves that become old and shriveled through time. And, finally, you even have those perfect leaves that keep the tree filled with life, soaking up the warmth of the sun to keep it alive. And... it's stupid, really." I stopped, feeling nervous about saying something aloud that I would usually just write in my notebook of random stuff.

"You can't just tell me you're jealous because trees have leaves and you don't... besides, if the leaves represent memories, you have those yourself," Evanen stated in confusion, now curious. "Come on, finish it. What makes that envious?"

I sighed, and continued. "Well... every time winter starts coming along, the tree can shed away its leaves. All those leaves that have been a bother, just taking up space on its living arrangement, fall away from it, leaving it bare to start over once spring comes back. And sometimes I wish I could do that; shed away the memories of the past and start over renewed to get rid of all the troubles that slow me down.

"Then again, it could be considered a curse more than a gift sometimes. Because, say there's a time when the tree actually has good leaves, and is content with them. It'd still have to shed them come winter, so then it'd probably end up with worse leaves the next spring. But I guess everything has a bad side to it," I finished. I smirked at the look of confusion on his face. He still didn't quite get it; not much of a critical thinker.

"You should be a writer," He finally suggested.

I scoffed. "Of what?"

He shrugged, "I don't know... inspiring novels?"

I looked down at my feet. "Being a writer is actually quite hard. People expect you to go by the natural order of man versus man, man versus self, or man versus nature. And then you have to have a beginning, middle, and end with a natural plot to the story. Not to mention having to figure out the rising action, which should lead to the climax before going back to the falling action and eventually the end. In my mind, if ever I think of a story, it usually goes straight from the climax to the end. But then again I might be confusing the climax for the falling action, so I'd be senseless in writing a story. Not to mention the harsh critics on enforcing well built paragraphs and detail, detail, and more detail. Then you end up having to rewrite it five times before its even acceptable... at the least. And then it still may not be published anyways so it's a complete waste of time. I'll stick to talking."

"So I'm assuming you don't like writing much," Evanen said sarcastically.

"No way. I love writing. It's just the closest I've ever gotten to actually writing a story was last year, when I had to write a short story. And even then, it was just about a girl who went for a walk in the woods, got lost for twenty mintutes, and end up having lifetime nightmares about it because it represented how afraid she was of getting lost in the real world," I stated quickly. I had got an 'A' on it and was questioned as to why I tend to write depressing things in that class. I always found dark, disturbing things more beautiful than a girl getting lost on a rainbow.

"Well, if you like writing, and if you can write a story by being pressured into it, maybe you'll find writing stories to be enjoyable," he replied shortly, "Besides, it's not as if you have to get anything published. But if you end up enjoying it, it could help with stress and all that. Seeing as it'd be your story; your world. And you could make anything happen if you wanted to. But, if you're afraid to, I get it. Commitment issues are common in this world." And I half gasped and half laughed. But I let it go.

I stared at a red rose bush in the distance; half of its flowers fully budded and half of them still closed. It was extremely pretty here, with all the flowers, ponds, bugs, stars, and the quiet peace. I hesitated, but then said, "So when you said Katha thought I was too pretty to be human awhile ago, did I happen to look like this?" And I smiled sheepishly.

Evanen laughed. "No. Now you look a bit disheveled... like a...," he frowned a bit, turning his head to the side as though to listen in the distance before saying distractedly, "Kind of like an abused hobo if you ask me. But you can still tell that once you get cleaned up, you'd be pretty." And there's the embarrassment.

"Well, I wouldn't say--," and I was interrupted when Evanen suddenly shoved me off the bench and snatched the pale hands of Katha that had been about to grab my throat. He growled threateningly, and I pushed myself from my stomach to my bottom. But before anything could be said, I was snatched from behind around my upper arms and pulled to my feet roughly. I gasped at the grip.

"Come along Evanen," Cecilian's powerful voice snapped, "We're not going to kill your human. We just have to clean up the mess you've left behind in snatching her away." And she started dragging me towards the direction of the house. Evanen shoved Katha's hands against herself, and untrustingly followed after Cecilian.

He suddenly grabbed my arm himself and pried Cecilian's hands off of me almost effortlessly. "I can bring her along myself, thanks," he snarled, and Cecilian scoffed, but continued ahead of us. At this, Evanen let go of my arm, gently grabbing my wrist instead. I rubbed my arm where Cecilian had had her death grip occupied at. And he said to Cecilian, "So what do you mean 'clean up the mess' anyways?"

Katha stomped past me, growling in disappointment before walking ahead of Cecilian. Even though she was beautiful, she looked scary when she was angry. Cecilian just looked disturbed, as though this mess cleaning was wasting her important time, but needed to be finished with anyways. And she called back, "You'll see."

Evanen moved closer to me as we walked -- we were lagging behind because while they may be super beings with super speed-walking abilities, I tend to think of walking as normal walking -- and he assured me quietly, "I won't let them hurt you. We have a deal, and you haven't broken our end, so they're probably just going to nag. I'll get us out of it; just don't say anything to upset them. Okay?" And I nodded, still worried about what was coming up next.

We entered the house, and were led into a room -- a living room, I assumed -- in which Cecilian turned on the television in annoyance. "Where's Mikel," Evanen asked while she started flipping the channels.

"I don't know. He's afraid of your human, so he's been hiding around," And she turned to Katha, who had been looking at the direction of the front door when Mikel had been mentioned. "I don't see why you let him live. He's a complete waste of our kind if you ask me, and he's both suffering and causing us to suffer." Katha didn't respond.

Suddenly, Cecilian stopped on a newcaster, who had a picture of Kyler hovering over his left shoulder. "... death of a teenage girl Friday night by injuries to her neck during a party in which her friend, Hailence Truit..." My picture replaced Kylers promptly at the mention of my name. "... ended up disappearing from. Witness says that she left with a man around the age of 20. Witness says the man looked around 6 ft, caucasian, bleached white hair, blue eyes, and lip peircings.." A drawing of someone similiar to Evanen appeared to cover the whole tv screen, but the newscaster continued. "If anyone has any vital information on the knowledge of Hailence or the identity of the suspected kidnapper, please contact authority or..." And he listed two seperate numbers, which were listed next to Evanen's face.

Cecilian turned off the television with annoyance. "It's all over the humans news. You," she pointed at Evanen, "You were seen. You could have taken off with the other girl's body, got rid of it, and taken off with this one at the same time without being seen and you know it. You need to get your head straight." And she pulled me over to a table, sitting me down roughly. Evanen stood behind me without a word. Cecilian suddenly dropped a phone directly in front of me and I winced as if she hit me.

"Call your family... tell them you ran away, that Evanen is just some boy you were hanging out with the whole time during the party, and that he didn't kill your friend," Cecilian ordered firmly, and she moved closer and growled, "And you better make it believeable."

I stared at the phone in disbelief. "I can't do that!"

"You're going to," Cecilian snarled.

"But," I hesitated, "Why would I run away?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

"I can't," I said weakly, "I can't... Please, just leave me alone. I can't. I--" I was cut off when Cecilian's hand swipe across my left cheek hard enough to send my head to the side. I felt a searing pain, and clenched my teeth together to hold the scream in. And Evanen's angry yelling was just a blur in my head as I reached up to my cheek to feel three long gashes seeping with blood.

There was a sudden silence, and Evanen's breath was on my ear. "Just call your dad. I'm sure you can think of a reason why any other person would run away from him. You can lie, right? It'll be easy. You're a writer; you can make up a good story. I know you can," he reassured me, picking up the phone and putting it in front of me. "Just like a tree; shake off your leaves. You can do it." And with a boiling hatred, I grabbed the phone, taking notice to the red blood on my fingers.

I took a deep breath, holding the wireless phone in front of me. With my bloodied hand, I wiped the tears that had burned into my cheeks off from my face. If I had to make it sound serious, I couldn't be choked with tears. And when I finallly felt that bitter rage in control to be used in the phone call, both physically and emotionally, I started to dial my number. I didn't get the first number in when I realized I couldn't remember it. So I paused, thinking what my number was. I couldn't believe I had forgotten a number that I had dialed for years now.

I sensed rather than saw another swipe coming from Cecilian, and I winced in preparation. But Evanen had reached over my shoulder and had snatched her hand before it came near to my face, and he swiped at her instead, causing three gashes to suddenly appear on her own cheeks. Cecilian lifted her free hand to her face, but as she turned to glare at Evanen, the gashes started healing themselves. "She's thinking about dialing those stupid human police," Cecilian snarled angrily.

"No, she's not," Evanen snapped, "She's smarter than that." Smart enough to forget my home phone number.

"Then tell her to _hurry up_," Katha screeched impatiently.

But before anybody could tell me anything, I realized why I couldn't remember it. I never remembered it. I started dialing without thinking, and sure enough... my number appeared on the face of the phone. I hesitated before I lifted the phone to my ear, but pushed the hesitation away. I was causing my eternal doom here with this call, but without it.. I'd die sooner so I supposed I had to pick between the two.

My dad answered uncertainly with, "Hello?"

"I just thought you should know that I'm not coming back, _Bart_, so you don't have to worry," I said cruelly, but even those words didn't keep the gasp of happiness in knowing that I wasn't dead from him.

"Wynnie? Where are you? I'll come get you," Dad said, and he called behind him, "It's my daughter! She's alive!"

"It doesn't matter where I am. Are you listening?! I'm gone," I snapped in frustration, "I'm sick of you thinking you can control me forever. I'm 17 years old! Another year and I'm legally an adult! So what if I go sleep with some guys? Did you seriously think that just because you're so protective meant that I couldn't have a boyfriend? Grow up."

"Wait... you're running away," Dad asked, now confused.

"BINGO! Look who finally woke up," I yelled sarcastically. "Go find someone else's life to ruin."

"Then who was that boy your friend, D.J. whatever, saw you leave the party with?"

I scoffed, "He's just some idiot I was having fun with. Why don't you stop trying to blame other people for your own faults? And tell Kyler that I'm sorry I left earlier than planned... but I'll see her later." And I hung up the phone in pain. Cecilian snatched it from me, and I felt the tears starting to blur my vision once again.

"What was the Kyler bit about," Katha asked suspiciously.

"Now he thinks I don't know about Kyler being dead," I responded angrily, "So both Evanen and I aren't going to be blamed for it." And Evanen grabbed my wrist to take me out of the room. He started to lead me upstairs, and I tried to pull my hand out of his in disgust. He seemed to have gotten the picture, and he let go of my wrist. I followed behind him instead, occasionally wiping at my burning cheek to attempt to clear the blood. Instead, the blood just caked my hands and blended in with the blood caked on my face.

When Evanen led me into his room, I sat on the floor next to the bed rather than on it. He opened a door within the room that led to a bathroom I hadn't known was there. And when he came back, he had a wet cloth in his hand. He bent down in front of me.

"I won't let them hurt you again in front of me like that," Evanen promised, and started to dab at the blood on my face. I jerked away, not in pain, but in malice. He started to dab at it again, and I smacked away at his hand.

"What do you care? You're a monster, remember? Who cares if I get hurt or not, as long as I'm yours," I snapped furiously. And he glared at me with such rage that I knew my life was over with.

"Fine," he snarled, and he threw the wet cloth on the floor. "The bathroom's there if you want it." And he stormed out of the room. I didn't feel guilty at all, except in the knowledge that I just may have given away any chance of making any friends in this house. So much for me getting someone to let me go. And I grabbed the wet cloth, trying to wipe away the blood on my hands. But ultimately I ended up burying my face in the side of the bed to sob out the pain and rage within me. I was stuck here forever.


	10. Chapter 10: NonHero Hero

**Chapter Ten**

_Non-hero Hero_

I had to use the bathroom. Really bad. But I didn't want to move from my spot under the bed. I felt safer, less connected to the world right here. Still, the bathroom door stood half open in taunting. I didn't want to see myself in the mirror, either. But I reeeeaaalllly had to go. I'll just have to hold it. I could get bladder infection. Worth it. What if becoming sick would just prompt Evanen to just finish me off? Worth it. So I merely held my legs crossed and held my breath, not moving from my spot under my bed.

I heard the lock to the door click, and so I wasn't startled when it opened, merely confused as to why it bursted open so. But then I saw the feet of Evanen walk to the bed and drop something on top of it. I didn't move from my spot. So Evanen paused in what seemed like a sudden confusion. And then he dropped to the floor and I saw his face looking at me through the darkness. His eyes had a sharp, blue film over them, reminding me of a cats eyes in the black of the night... except a different color.

"What are you doing under here," He asked in amusement.

"I thought I saw a penny," I lied sarcastically.

"I'll give you a penny if you get out from there. I have something here for you." And his head disappeared from the darkness. I sighed, shoving myself out from under the bed. Evanen was looking around, smirking as though enjoying a mental thought in his head. "Looks like you got bored." And I followed his gaze. His room was officially neat and orderly, yet still held the style of emo boy. I had merely picked up all his clothes and stuck them in a basket in the corner, along with folding some that seemed perfectly clean and hanging up some others. You could actually see the floor.

I shrugged. "What did you want to..." And I looked at the bed. There was four large bags of what looked like clothing and some other things on the bed, one being spilled over with a couple of pants falling out.

"Oh, yeah. The first night I brought you here, I figured you might need more things in the long run. Looked at the tags on your shirt and pants... and other things," He seemed to trail off, and I felt a sudden rush of embarrassment.

"You _what_," I growled.

"Anyways, I bought you some clothes and a new pair of shoes to replace the ones we lost on your way here," Actually, I only lost one, but what is a person going to do with one shoe? And he started dumping the bags on the bed. "Along with girly things like special shampoos, conditioner, and soap... brushes, deodorant, perfume, makeup..." He picked up a box of tampons. "Get the picture?" He dropped the box. "So have fun doing what you do when your bored." And he disappeared out of the room. That wasn't uncomfortable at all... eh.

At least I felt inspired now. I wasn't going to feel like a rat forever! And I started sorting through the pile of stuff on the bed, separating the shirts from the pants, and putting the underwear, bras, and socks together. Evanen had a couple of empty drawers, where I put my clothes. And then I grabbed the rest of the so-called "girly" things - along with a full change of an outfit - , put them in a bag, and moved into the bathroom. There wasn't much things in the bathroom, and I began to wonder if vampires had to take a lot of showers. But I placed everything from my bag in there, and shut the bathroom door before getting to work on myself.

It felt better to be clean. It annoyed me to wear the same thing for up to three days, and so when I changed into a new pair of jeans and a tanktop, I felt much better. Especially after a shower. And I had to tackle my hair, but soon I uncovered the ponytail holder. That wasn't the least of it. I had to brush the bottom half below my ponytail holder out the best I could just so I could get it off. Ultimately, I had to break the holder itself so that I could brush my hair out, but it was a satisfying ending when my hair was back to being normal. And the shower had finished it off by getting rid of the massive oil-ness of it. Soon the only thing I had to do was put on deodorant - not the perfume because I'm not a perfume fan - and... of course I had to apply eyeliner that merely shaped my eye rather than made me look dead tired.

I put on the new shoes, and they fit... which was expecting seeing as Evanen probably just looked at the size on the loner shoe. Now I was ready to just head over back home. Yeah, right. I jumped when there was a sudden knocking on the bathroom door.

"You finished yet," Evanen's voice called.

I opened the door and greeted him. "Happy?" And I smiled at the flash of startlement on his face. I guess he thought I was going to hide inside the bathroom forever.

He reached to me and traced his thumb on my cheek, wiping the smile off my face to a look of incertainty. "Much better," He responded, talking about my new look from trash to normal. He dropped his hand and moved towards the bedside table. "Does everything fit okay?"

"Just about perfectly," I admitted, moving to the edge of the bed to sit down. I felt comfortable now that I didn't feel like I was going to burst.

"Well, good," Evanen said, "I'm going to be gone for a little while. And I'll leave the door open as long as you don't try to escape the house. But you can go down to the kitchen and get something to eat... maybe explore around. As long as you don't go opening doors that are locked. Okay?" He moved towards the door.

I jumped up. "Wait. What? Why are you leaving?" Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm going to _miss_ him.

But Evanen looked amused at my sudden desperate appearance. "I'm a bit hungry myself, if you want to know."

"Well, you can't... don't leave me here," I said pathetically.

He turned completely toward me with a raised brow. "Would you prefer to come along?"

I hesitated. "No." And in a sudden move, he was just behind me, moving my hair away from my neck.

"Or would you like me to stay and satisfy my hunger with you," He asked slyly. I gulped, wincing in rememberance of the sharp pain of his fangs peircing my skin, as he breathed on my skin... waiting for my answer.

He certainly seemed okay with choosing to stay in sacrifice of my own blood. And I said in a whining voice, "But if you leave, one of them will get me." Evanen backed away automatically, now understanding what I meant by him staying. See, everyone in the house hates me, but they seem to stand me being here because Evanen was right there next to me to protect me from them. And with him gone for an extended amount of time, and my door wide open, what's to stop them from killing me off?

"They won't hurt you if you don't try to escape," He assured me uncertainly.

I scoffed, turning towards him. "And how are you to know if I was actually trying to run away?" And I crossed my arms determinely to wait for his answer. I was satisfied in his reaction, seeing as now he himself seemed unsure as to whether or not he should leave. I didn't want to go watch him kill someone else, nor did I want him to feed from me again. Yet I didn't want to be left alone. If only he could just starve.

"Okay," Evanen suddenly said in realization. I wasn't certain what that meant, but he suddenly led me out of the room. As we walked down the hall, he started knocking on random doors, and whenever Katha's head appeared from one, he said, "Follow me." And then he was continuing on his knocking until he found Mikel and Cecilian. When he had all of them - seeing as apparently Drewdon wasn't a problem - he turned, pulling me with him, to look at them all. Cecilian looked bothered, Katha angered, and Mikel stared at the ground almost guiltily.

"I'm leaving to feed and I'm leaving Hailence here until I come back," Evanen stated, and the only one to react was Katha, whose angry face suddenly looked hopeful. That caused Evanen to seem satisfied in his mental questioning. "That's what I thought. First of all, if I come back and Hail is dead or hurt in any way, you will regret it."

"What if she tries to escape," Katha asked, suddenly angry again.

Evanen scoffed, "Then grab her and keep her retained until I come back, and I'll see if I think she was actually trying to escape. And you know how well I can tell if someone is lying or not." Katha shut up at that explanation, apparently any plan in her head ruined.

Cecilian then cut in. "If she tries to escape, I'm going to kill her, whether you like it or not."

Evanen let go of my wrist and stepped in front of Cecilian with rage. "Do it and there will be no Rising." Cecilian's proud face broke down from pride to despair to rage all in one.

"She's affecting it, just like you promised she wouldn't," Cecilian yelled, enraged, pointing at me as if condemning me. I didn't feel comfortable anymore.

"No, _you're_ affecting it," Evanen snarled, and stepped back, "And as for you..." He glared at Mikel, who seemed to be the only one not planning any type of secret killing in Evanen's absense. "She's not hurt, suffering, or dying in any way, so you better not lay a hand on her." I knew that Evanen didn't actually think Mikel would do anything, seeing as he had said so himself, but he was just making sure.

And Evanen seemed done. Then just before he led me off, he said, "And I said she could wander around here, including the kitchen, so that doesn't count as escaping. Don't try to retain her unless she's trying to go outside." And he started walking through the group with me following behind. Katha snapped at me as I passed, making me step back into Mikel, who seemed to jump back a mile at my touch. I was relatively relieved when I was out of their sight.

"What about Drewdon," I whispered to Evanen as he pulled me in front of his room door.

He shrugged. "I'm sure he heard everything that was said. And if you do run into him, it's best to just not make any sudden movements or noises. Try not to talk. And try to slowly back out of the room. He's like an animal, so it should work if he doesn't have any reason to think of eating you."

I gulped again in fear. "Really?"

Evanen smiled jokingly, "Actually, I'm just kidding... you shouldn't move at all." And he started off down the hall without me. I didn't know whether he was telling the truth or not, but either way, I felt as though I wasn't going to leave Evanen's room at all until he came back.

Two minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of the bed mumbling to myself. At first it was just a bunch of songs I was muttering lyrics of... Then my stomach growled and I was suddenly naming off a bunch of different foods that sounded good at the moment. And before I knew it, I was slowly creeping out of the bedroom door. Now, when I first got here, I was laying on top of the kitchen counter. I don't remember going upstairs to reach that kitchen counter, so it must be downstairs. I should be Sherlock Holmes' sidekick.

I spent a moment trying to remember which way Evanen had taken me to go to the garden, and started in that direction. And I must have good memory because the next thing I knew, I had found the top of the flight of stairs. I lightly placed my foot on the top one, but my memory isn't good enough so that I wouldn't make any noise on the way down. I gave up trying to step lightly, and started counting the steps instead. On the fifteenth step, I hit the first floor.

Not exactly sure which way the counter was... I moved to the left before turning back to go to the right of the stairs. Whichever way it was, I eventually circled around to find the now clear kitchen counter as opposed to my near-dead vision last time. But with the sight came Cecilian, who was perched on the edge of the counter, staring at the surface with annoyance. I just assumed she was wishing she had killed me when she had the chance.

Before I could back away quickly, Cecilian twisted her head sharply to peer at me before going back to staring at the counter. "Come on in, I'm sure you must be famished by now," she ordered in that over-powering voice once again. But it wasn't like that voice of Evanen's, which when ordered would somehow crawl into my thoughts and obsess over every single thought etched in my brain until I couldn't think of doing anything else except listening to it. Still, I decided she wouldn't do anything, and I made my way around her and towards the refridgerator tentively.

Just as I was about to pass her, Cecilian snatched my elbow with a death grip. I tried to pull my arm away, but she kept a firm grip, glaring at me with her cold, dark, blue eyes. "He'll get tired of you eventually," Cecilian said in that omniscent voice. "So don't try anything stupid while you are here. If you even think about destroying our plans for Evanen, I'll kill you. I don't care what he'll think. And it won't be a slow death. It'll come so quickly that you won't even know what hit you. Either way, you'll die; whether it's me who kills you or Evanen. But don't even think about trying to convince him to change you. Don't even _think_ about it." Her grip was tightening so that I started clinching my jaw in pain, and I pulled at her hand inefficiently.

"FINE," I yelled, "I'm not even thinking about anything. I promise!" And she tightened her grip another notch before letting go completely. Well, here comes another bruise. Cecilian went back to glaring at the counter while I rubbed my elbow, begrudged. I continued to make distance between us as I headed towards the refridgerator. There's got to be sandwich meat or something here.

I started to straighten out my arm - failed to complete that because it hurt too much - and opened the refridgerator door. There seemed to be plenty of food to pick from, which is weird for a house with vampires in it. And before I could question it, Cecilian stated, "Evanen stocked it up for you." For a moment I wondered if she could read my mind, but then it couldn't be possible because she wouldn't have even thought that I'd be wanting to become a vampire freak. Truth be told, it may seem cool, but I prefer not to become another Mikel... which is probably what I would become because I don't do good when harming people. That's what I had Kyler for. Had. Never will have her for anything anymore.

With a sudden boiling rage that I had been trying to keep hidden - seeing as I was trying to keep on my best behavior in order to try to get sympathy to escape - I yanked the gallon of milk from the fridge. I felt like throwing it at Cecilian because she was completely stupid. Did she think I was here on my own free will? Trying to mingle with a vampire so I could become one? Or did she fail to notice that my entrance into this hellhole was nearly dead and bleeding? I'm not like _her_; searching the world for a way to immortality. I accepted death when I found out that out of all my illnesses, at least one would kill me before I hit age 35. At some point, you want to die when your body is trying so hard to get you to agree with it.

I opened the milk bottle - for some reason, Cecilian seemed to chuckle with pleasure - and I was about to take a drink out of it when I heard a dark voice behind me growl, "Don't drink from the bottle. Grab a glass." The sudden presense of someone I hadn't met yet had clearly left the name 'Drewdon' in my mind, and I lost muscle control in my hands, causing me to drop the milk as I turned around quickly. But before it hit the ground, the man, Drewdon, had snatched it from midair, keeping it from spilling a drop.

He placed it back on the counter. It was definitely Drewdon. He towered over me, being only an inch or two taller than Evanen himself. And his hair was a seeping black that crawled down his back. It wasn't up or anything, so it looked slightly creepy in a mass-killer-who-doesn't-groom type of way. Plus, his eyes were... yellow. Not a golden brown, but yellow. And it was creepy in its own way of how it seemed to glare with a certain animal effect. Still, to strike out his ungroomed hair, he was nicely dressed in a sort of business like tone. A creepy business like tone. But either way, I was frozen, not sure what to do. Evanen didn't exactly give a specific guide for this type of thing, and what tips he did give couldn't be trusted because of the unserious way he took the subject.

Drewdon reached out and grabbed my hand, opening it to drop the milk jug cap onto his own hand. His hand seemed warmer than Evanen's, but then again that didn't make me feel safer in his presense. But he let go, placing the cap back on the milk jug. "So who exactly is she, Cecil," Drewdon seemed to growl with distaste. Cecilian was watching the whole scenery with utter enjoyment.

"That'll be Evanen's new toy pet." She crossed her leg with expectation. I still stood still. I mean, I've been standing still and it's worked in not getting me killed so far... so something must be working.

"So close to The Rising," Drewdon asked, now sounding confused, "Why'd you let him keep one when you know what's coming up? Especially a female pet. Especially..." He glared at me in spectation. "Especially one he's using for company rather than enjoyable, long-term food." Glad I'm not the food type.

"He said she wouldn't affect it, but I thought that meant he was just using her for physical enjoyment. Apparently I was wrong, because he seems to being taking an unhealthy liking to it," Cecilian stated in displeasure, "Even awhile ago he threatened not to go through with his Rising because of her." Well, that's not exactly explaining the complete truth. And it hit me. Evanen had said that Drewdon would kill me as though he couldn't stop it from happening, even if it did. Which meant that there was one person that Evanen would probably have to obey... and that would be Drewdon. So Cecilian must have just noticed the idea of using Drewdon to kill me by telling him that I would interfere with that... Rising?... Which is the thing that all the vampires in this house obviously don't want to be interferred.

Drewdon seemed to be thinking, and I imagined a guy that came from the 1700s had a lot of experience to base his thoughts on. And he shook his head. "No, now isn't a good time for him to have a human around," He settled on, and I knew whether I moved or not he'd kill me. So I backed away, but he snatched my wrists.

"Can't you just let me go," I whined, automatically twisting my shoulders up to attempt to hide my neck as best as possible. Drewdon shook his head, annoyed at my plea. He can be annoyed all he wants, _he's_ not the one about to be eaten by someone. "I won't interfere with any plans or anything. I just want to live. You're alive; you get it, right? You don't want to die right now, right? Well, it goes the same with me! I just want to go do my thing and you can do your own thing. I promise. I-"

"Be quiet," Drewdon ordered smoothly, and all thoughts were blocked from my head, leaving me with one that kept me from talking. It didn't keep me from thinking, and my heart started pounding as I struggled to pull my wrists out of Drewdon's hands. "Calm down." It wasn't like being paralyzed. It was more like being drugged. My heart slowed down against my will, and I didn't seem as afraid. Drewdon moved my hair from my shoulder, and pulled my tank top strap to the side to bare a spot of my shoulder that was next to the bite on my neck.

Just as Drewdon bent down to bite down on my shoulder, I was pulled painfully away from him, and suddenly Evanen was in front of me, growling in rage. Before Drewdon could say anything, Evanen hauled off and punched him on the side of the face. Apparently Evanen had some amazing strength he kept from me because Drewdon staggered back gripping his face with a stunned expression. It reminded me how Evanen had slapped Cecilian. Apparently he doesn't listen or obey Drewdon like I thought he did. Either way, Drewdon was pissed.

Drewdon towered in front of Evanen, who towered back without faltering. Drewdon didn't look stronger than Evanen at the moment, seeing as he had been the one who had been punched and was only an inch or two taller than Evanen himself. And without another word, Drewdon turned and stormed out of the room. That clearly left an air of a message of 'It's not over yet'. Cecilian looked shocked herself, obviously never thinking that Evanen would be back before Drewdon would kill me. She was out before anything could be said to her as well, and I was left behind Evanen, who was seeping with rage.

He turned to look at me, and I noticed a certain renewed appearance about him. It must be the fact that he had fed for sure. Still, it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes, which meant he was in a hurry about it. "Are you okay," Evanen asked, moving my tank top strap to look at my shoulder before putting it back and moving my hair over it with satisfaction.

I nodded, "Still hungry, though." I seemed a bit lost, as though I still thought that creepy Drewdon would come back in here any second. But Evanen was certainly my new non-hero hero. In that the only reason why he was my hero was because he wasn't my hero in the first place... seeing as he got me in this mess after all. Still, a hero in his own little way.


	11. Chapter 11: Going Ensane

**Chapter Eleven**

_Going Ensane_

"Do all vampires hate humans... and don't like to be in their presense unless it's just to satisfy something in them, whether it be hunger or just curiousity," I asked Evanen, slowly starting to confuse myself. We were back in his room, on his bed. I was laying on my stomach, hugging a pillow. As for Evanen, he was laying his head on my back for some reason, sometimes placing his hand on the back of my neck or tapping his fingers on various placing on my back. I was fine with it, as long as he didn't try to bite me, try to raise my shirt, or start rubbing my back in a suggestive way... "I mean, is there any vampire you know who likes humans as just regular people?"

Evanen didn't answer for awhile. He seemed warped in whatever it was that he was doing. Either he was trying to hear my insides, trying to see how long it was before his body absorbed my heat pointlessly, or maybe he was just tired and bored. If it was to see how long it would be before I got annoyed at his weight on my back, it would be awhile because it was more of an assuring weight that somehow told me I was still alive and solid. I enjoyed knowing that I was alive and solid, so I wouldn't mind the weight until the pain of staying in one spot starts to kick in.

"It's not that vampires _hate_ humans," Evanen finally responded, pressing his fingers against the top of my back, in between my shoulders, until I felt the pressure on my spine. He started moving his fingers over my spinal structure slowly. "Some do, though. But mainly because it's the only way they'll not feel guilty for killing them without mercy. Others don't like being in the presense of humans because it reminds them of what they had and what they want, like Katha. And some are just afraid of hurting them, like Mikel. Then you have the few who just don't like hanging out with things that aren't like them, like Cecilian. Otherwise, you just have vampires who don't really hate nor like humans, but just see them as food, like Drewdon."

"And you are one who sees humans as food, except that you are curious as well," I stated, seeing as Evanen had a problem with explaining himself. "Which isn't exactly wrong, seeing as you've never been one." He didn't answer. So how do I bring up the parents without angering him again?

"It's almost as though you can hear the air spreading out to your blood rather than just staying in place within the lungs... everything is alive in you. Everything in moving, working," Evanen suddenly said, and I finally understood what he was doing. Turns out he was indeed listening to my insides. He didn't move from where he was, so I let it go.

"How is a person born a vampire," I asked, hoping that the approach to the subject wouldn't trigger his anger. He seemed at peace, though, because he merely continued listening to my organs.

"It's impossible," Evanen responded, and I frowned in confusion.

"But didn't you--"

"I was born a vampire, I know," he stated, and now I was completely confused. "It's impossible, though. But it was fate that one person would be born a vampire. And I just so happen to be the one fated vampire who was born dead." That didn't exactly answer my question, but I decided to continue.

"From two vampires," I asked, straight to my point. I felt him smile against my back, which gave me relief.

"Actually, from two humans if you have to know," he answered. "I was born a vampire. At first the doctors thought it was just albinism, but then they found that my blood cells wouldn't regenerate by themselves. So I had to get continuous blood transfusions. I was around five when I finally killed my parents, and it wasn't long before I got ahold of the vampire world. Drewdon was the one who raised me since then. But it's only temporary. They never quite knew how I would turn out, because they never even knew that a vampire could age physically. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be immortal like the others because I do age."

I was shocked that he explained so much, when I just expected a short answer of yes or no. I almost asked, "You killed your parents?" But then I thought that might be the reason he gets angry when he talks about his parents in the first place. With that thought, I found another question to ask him that wasn't directly asking about his personal life when it came to his past.

"So if you were born from two humans--" Please don't lose him yet... "-- do you know if you have a soul? Or do vampires always have souls... well, what I mean is, does that mean that you were born with a conscience, or do most vampires have conscience..." I forgot what I was meaning to ask. And after a couple of seconds, when Evanen didn't answer, I assumed he didn't understand what I was asking either. So I laid there to think on what exactly I was trying to ask. It was _right_ there in my head. Whatever. I'll get back to that point later.

"Do vampires have souls," I asked instead.

"Do humans," Evanen asked, and I frowned. He suddenly laid his head just above my heart on my back, putting his hands on my lower back. "I don't hear any soul... and I've never seen one. And if humans do have souls, is it an always type of thing... Where all humans born are born with souls? If they are, then why are there humans that are as bad as vampires? Worse even? Do they not have souls? Are they born vampires in a human body?" I could feel him grinning with the sudden burst of questions. He turned slowly to look into my eyes. "What makes you think you have a soul? What about animals... plants? Do they have souls? Some are good, some are evil."

I never thought of it that way. I just assumed souls were a natural part of life and death. "Well, my dad would say people all have souls, even the bad ones. It's just that those who end up being evil; those that are worse than vampires... they have damned souls. But... well, he also says that only humans have souls. Which is why I was wondering if vampires have souls, because you're not human."

"Well," Evanen laid his head back down on my back, "Why would you think vampires wouldn't have souls if souls do exist? Maybe they're just like the evil humans; with just damned souls... not an absense of one. Especially seeing as they were born human, so that they did have souls."

"Maybe that's true," I responded, keeping an open mind. "But that brings me to this question: do _you_ have a soul? If souls exist?" Evanen stopped tapping on my back muscles abruptly. I stopped breathing. Did I hit a nerve? He sat up and started to get off the bed without a word. Yep. I hit a nerve. I let out a breath of air and groaned. And I pushed myself up.

Before he could leave the room, I bounded in front of him and weakly put my hands on his chest to keep him from leaving. I didn't exactly see the point on trying to put all my might into the pushing, seeing as he was the vampire of this duet. But I just needed to find something to say to cheer him up so I wouldn't have to spend a nice long length of hours in a boring room all by my lonesome until he feels better. He didn't hesitate to grab my shoulders and move me out of his way before I could say something, though.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it in a mean way. I'm sure you have a soul or something. And if you don't, then it's not a bad thing. Well, it's suppose to be, but I don't mind. And who says there actually are souls? Maybe we're just a bunch of electrified cells moving about in such a weird way that it seems like it's a soul. Maybe when we die, we're just dead...maybe... I don't care just... just," He was already opening the door, and I turned and grabbed a hand-held mirror. I threw it with rage towards Evanen, and it crashed into the door, shattering to peices before it hit the floor. Before he could yell at me with furiousity, I wailed with pain, "_Don't leave me._" And I sobbed before becoming shocked with myself. I wiped away the tears that had suddenly appeared, and calmed myself down. Wow, I blew that way out of proportions.

Now that I had embarrassed myself, I turned away from Evanen -- who had let go of the door knob and was looking from the broken mirror to me with a shocked and confused expression -- and I crawled back onto the bed and smothered my face into the pillow, covering myself up with the blanket. Unwanted tears were still trying to burn their way out of my eyes, and I wasn't sure exactly why. Maybe Evanen was started to drive me insane.

I felt a sudden weight lower the bed beside me, but I continued to hide myself in my humiliation. "I didn't mean to upset you...," Evanen said uncertainly, and he paused. I didn't respond, so he continued, "I just... I really don't know if I have a soul or not, and sometimes it... well, sometimes it scares me. Because then I really don't have a purpose in being here besides killing people... and helping my kind kill even more people... but all in all... just killing. And if I don't have a soul, that would mean that I never had a choice in any matter. Even if I had stayed with not killing anyone... if I never had a soul, I'd always be damned. No matter what... do you... can you understand?" I still didn't answer. For some reason, now I wanted him to leave. He depresses me. Enrages me. So why not just keep me enslaved by myself, seeing as that seems to be his plan at some point anyways.

"Why are you upset," he asked, and I was furious. Isn't it obvious? I flung the blanket off of me, and sat up to glare at him.

"What am I," I questioned through my gritted teeth. I didn't really expect a sure answer, and Evanen didn't answer. He merely looked at me with confusion. "Do I look like I was born to be stuck in one room forever? As some sort of toy? A doll to entertain you? You ask me why I'm upset, I'll tell you why! You pluck me from my life, and put me in a box like I'm a... a turtle or something. And then everytime I say something that doesn't go your way, you go bouncing away, locking me in my box so that I'm stuck in here all by myself until my brain starts bouncing off the walls with boredom. How am I suppose to know that you won't just leave for so long one day that I'll just be stuck in here until I turn delusional? It's not like I even have a window to look at the scene, either. Ever read the book 'Flowers In The Attic'? AT LEAST THEY COULD GO OUT ON THE ROOF! Are _you_ going to poison me with arsenic? Huh? Huh? Well, I'll have you know, mister _Evanen_, I will NOT eat any powdered donuts you offer to me. No, sir. You can think twice on that.

"See what you've done? I'm already going insane. I'm enraged, enslaved, and now I'm going E-n-sane," I finished with a hiss. And I plopped my head back into the pillow before screaming into it. My rage now spent, I felt like going to sleep. Evanen didn't seem to be responding to anything. And when he did place his hand on my shoulder lightly, I smacked it away angrily and growled, "Go away. Leave. Leave me here to die. It's not like you were planning on keeping me alive for too long anyways."

He hesitated. "How about I get someone else? Bring you a little girl for company or something? Would that make you happy," he asked sincerely, and I felt a sudden revulsion. He was never human. It showed at times like this. When it seemed as if he could not understand a human's mind. But I didn't feel sympathy. I felt disgust.

I turned my head to glare at him in disbelief. "_No_," I gasped in shock, but then my voice became stronger as I repeated, "No. No, you can't just go fetch company! Then I would be worried about her dying from boredom as well as me. Why would I want someone else to suffer to entertain me? I'm not _you_." I winced on the inside at the hurt expression on his face.

And then he was angry. I could see it in the way he tensed up, and how his eyes became cold as he glared at me. Sometimes I wish I could just shut up, but I just had to go and say something like that. But instead of him just storming out of the room or hitting me, he just moved his glare up to the ceiling as if he was trying to gain control of his anger. I merely stared in small interest.

"Fine," he finally said venomously, "I'll stay here and kill you instead of leaving and getting control of myself. As long as that's what you _want_." I was only a little worried about that statement, but it turned out I didn't have to be worried that much anyways. Evanen didn't attempt to try to strangle or bite me, so I just laid my head on the pillow to peer at him. As long as there was something here to entertain me, I wouldn't start to die of complete boredom. Plus, it was interesting to watch the expression of his face as he laid his head next to mine to peer at my own face as well. Under normal circumstances, I'd feel uncomfortable, but this wasn't exactly a normal situation.

A suddenly sad expression leaked from his facial features, and he started with a voice of heartache, "I can't give you sunlight. If I made a window, I wouldn't be able to come in here with you when the sun is up. And I can't let you outside freely during the day because I wouldn't be able to be there with you to know that you wouldn't just escape. Which I know that you would try to run; don't try to deny that." I merely continued to peer into his blue eyes while he peered into my light brown eyes. "But one day soon we'll see the sun rise together. I promise." And he smiled cryptically. I couldn't help but smirk at the hopeful feeling he placed in my heart with his eyes.

He started to trace his fingers over my face lightly, his cold fingers bringing a relief to my hot cheeks. "You're not a doll... and you're not a turtle," Evanen stated with a tone of amusement. I let a small smile come to my lips, but it was gone with a small bitter feeling of disbelief. "I just can't let you go anywhere anytime in case Katha, Cecilian, or Drewdon try to pull another thing like in the kitchen again. They think they can control me better if I have nothing for myself, so they're trying their best to take you from me. As if I'd be grateful for that." And he sounded bitter as well. "But I don't enjoy leaving you in here constantly. They just know that if they try to get in here, I'd be able to sense it. So I know you're safe as long as you're here. And I want you to be safe."

I was frowning with disappointment. "Well, can't we just go somewhere else, where I won't have to be locked up in one room all day? Away from everyone here?" And Evanen was smiling again with an evil thought in his eyes.

"I wouldn't say things like that if I were you," he warned, still smiling with amusement, "That's the exact reason why they're afraid of you being here. They think you'll get me to leave. They think they have me right where they want me, but only because I agree to be there. And with you here, they think you'll change my mind." I felt suddenly uneasy. I said I wouldn't bother with doing anything like that to Cecilian, and here I was; breaking it. And what's more; they can probably hear me right now. I'm doomed."

Evanen frowned slowly, apparently concerned with the sudden panic in my eyes. "It's okay," he assured, "I wouldn't endanger you by letting you convince me to do anything they wouldn't like..." And he smiled as I yeilded to his words. "Still," he continued, moving into a low whisper, "I _wouldn't_ mind just leaving. But let's keep that a secret." And I giggled as he put his forefinger over his lips in silence.

After a moment of staring at each other, in which Evanen continued his curiousity with my being by lightly touching every inch of my face, I said sincerely, "I seriously wouldn't care whether or not you have a soul. Sometimes I think that even the existance of souls would be pointless. Maybe it's just a stupid point system, counting off everytime you do something bad."

Evanen's expression didn't change. "What about if you do something good?" I shrugged.

"Maybe nobody ever has souls until they do something that makes them deserve one," I stated, "So maybe by doing good things rather than evil things earns them a soul, which is why there seem to be people who are soulless when they're evil."

"And what would you think would make me earn a soul," Evanen asked curiously, as though I wasn't saying 'maybe' but rather 'certainly'. "What would allow a born monster who has done nothing in his life but kill earn a soul?" I closed my eyes, feeling exhausted suddenly.

Even if earning a soul was true... how was I suppose to know how?


	12. Chapter 12: Katha's Story

**Chapter Twelve**

_Katha's Story_

Evanen was having a lecture with Drewdon at the moment. Not that I knew exactly why, but I figured it was a lecture in which my death would be discussed in the process. Normally, I'd be worried after the kitchen incident, I figured Evanen would stick up for my life and staying alive. So instead of cowering under a bed and gnawing at my fingernails all day, I decided to use my worthless time to my worthless advantage.

When I was growing up, I took up gymnastics for awhile. It was at the time when I wanted to be an awesome princess, cheerleader, prima ballerina type of person. Still, it makes a good time consuming thing to do. So while Evanen was chatting away with Drewdon in some faraway room up in this castle, I moved my own issues into the living room, where I moved all the furniture against the wall to give me room to entertain myself.

I started out with the simple bridge exercise, holding myself in that position for as long as I felt like staying. A bridge position, if thou didn't know, is when you lay on your back, put you hands on the floor beside your ears, and shoving your hips forward towards the ceiling, keeping your back arched. Legs straight, shoulders taunt over hands. And then I sat back down and went into pike position -- which is when you straighten your legs in front of you, bend forward as far as you can, and stretch your hands over your feet. After I was done with that, I moved into a 180 degree strattle position, which was harder than it used to be. That's just like a split, in which your legs are on either side of you, so that if you looked from afar, you'd look like an upside down T on the floor.

Now for the trick. I stood up, shaking my limbs, before moving to one side of the room. After a few moments of breathing, I bent back into a back handspring, but halfway through it, I split my legs as if I were in the middle of a back walkover, and with a glance of Katha in the middle of it all, I fell into a roll onto the floor on accident. When all the world stopped moving out of positions, I was just laying in the middle of the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths. I glanced back to where Katha had been to see that it indeed was true. She was standing there, glaring at me as if I were a cockroach in her lunch.

I rolled over before pushing myself up to standing position. I cautiously looked around to see that there was absolutely nobody around to save me from getting my face ripped off by a psycho maniac like Katha. For a moment, we just stared at each other. And when she didn't move, didn't breathe even, I started to wonder if she was just a statue of Katha. It's amazing how they all can look like statues, seeing as they all seem to be pale, flawless, and hard as rock. But with the thought, I figured if she was just a statue, I could just leave without interacting with any incident involving her killing me.

When I turned around to leave, she was in front of me. The sudden appearance sent that painful jolt of fear throughout me, in which followed with the thrashing of my heart. It didn't fill my ears with a pumping sound, but I could feel it in my chest. But Katha didn't attack me. She was just another statue staring down at me with fury. Well, she wasn't much taller than me if at all, but it seemed like she was staring _down_ at me. Either way, I started to back away slowly, and she started coming towards me at the same speed. Now was the time to try to plead for my life.

"You don't have to be jealous of me," I said in a high-pitched voice quickly. "If anything, I should be jealous of you. I don't see where you get that _I'm_ pretty, but you're gorgeous. You could steal any guy from me in a heartbeat, I swear." And I raised my hands to show that I wasn't lying. I wasn't. But she didn't smirk or show any type of expression besides the usual glare of jealousy.

"Except for Evanen, if you haven't noticed," Katha growled, and I could almost hear the yearning to rip me to peices. Still, I was shocked she would be jealous of Evanen keeping me as a slave.

"Trust me, you can have him. I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat," I swore on my life. The back of my legs hit a couch, and I fell back to sit on it on accident. "Besides, you don't want him anyways. He's stupid. Crazy. And if you count his lack of real personality, he's not that cute anyways. Plus, he's almost completely void of other's feelings. Compared to your kind personality and beauty, I don't believe a relationship between you two would be that satisfactory on your part, so just consider my slavery as a relief on your part." She continued to glare daggers at me. I knew that wouldn't work, but it was worth a try.

She started to grab for my throat, and I yelped, "He won't like it if you kill me! He'll leave. And then that'll affect his Riding... lifting.. or whatever it is that you all are so worried about."

Katha hesitated, her jealousy now replaced by a slightly worried, uncertain expression. She looked up, towards what I believed was the direction where Drewdon and Evanen were located. But then she looked back at me with triumph. "Well, he won't like it if you kill yourself, either, but he wouldn't leave then. Especially seeing as that would be breaking his own words and destiny. How should you kill yourself? Hanging? Cutting your wrists? No... no..." She put her finger to her chin and pretended to think on what would be the perfect way for me to die. "I got it! Poor little human girl threw herself down the stairs... or jumped off the second floor. Either way would work."

I whimpered. She reached for me and grasped my upper arm. "Wait," I pleaded, grasping her wrist desparately, "Why do you want to kill me anyways? What makes you want to kill any human that looks remotely attractive so bad? So what if you were ugly when you were human, lots of people are! But at least _you_ got the chance to become beautiful. Most people don't. So, if anything, _we_ should want to kill _you_ out of jealousy, you selfish, dumbass, whining, I-wanna-be-the-only-beautiful-girl-in-the-world-and-I'm-not-so-I'm-sad, crybaby bitch! Fuck you!" And out of rage, I kicked her shin, which only succeeded in making me wince from the pain now in my toes. Still, the mental pain I was trying to give her was what she deserved. I'm about the age she was when she was turned into a vampire, and I used to be as ugly as any ugly girl, so why does she get to be the only one who deserves to be beautiful at some point? Flawless, even!

This ranting rage seemed to make her reconsider killing me, for she let go of my arm in deep thought. The jealousy was still there, but it was now being overrun by something else... that looked a bit like pain. Katha did look beautiful when she wasn't about to kill me. What women wouldn't do to look remotely like that, with glowing skin that looked soft as silk, yet was strong and hard as marble. And her green eyes could devour any man's thoughts, drowning them with the glow of her blonde waves of hair. There was no reason why she should be jealous of anyone when she was perfect.

Katha sat next to me, and I flinched in preparation of being attacked. But she didn't attack me.. at least not yet. Instead, she clasped her hands together almost nervously, and stared at the wall wistfully. "You don't get it," She said to me, almost angrily, "None of you humans understand. It's not that I think I'm remotely ugly. It's just because I know what undeserved beauty makes you humans like. All of you. When you walk past an ugly, diseased girl, you throw stuff at her, poke her with sticks, burn her, hurt her, all for entertainment. And don't try to tell me you're an angel because any human who was just blessed with beauty at birth are undeserving demons wanting to bring harm to everyone just because they're not as good as you.

"I was a leper. I was already in pain, with some disease eating away at my flesh. And then there were you 'beautiful' people who would prance by on rainbows to eat away at me as well. Nobody ever wanted me. Nobody ever wanted to even come near me in fear of being eaten away by the same disease. And just because I was disgusting to your kind, I was tortured furthermore. That was my life. Torture. Pain. Hate.

"And then _he_ came along. I had thought he was just going to throw more stuff at me; cause me more pain. But he kissed me. And with his kiss came my flawless flesh, no longer diseased, and stunning beauty. I thought he loved me, but he just left. That's when I settled that I would use my gift to get back at all those beautiful people, male and female. All of them." And she paused, looking at her hands.

"But I saw him again. I saw him," she looked at me with pain, "Except he was human. And I wanted to kill him; to rip him to peices for leaving me in this warped rage of jealousy. But he was... he was so nice to me. He did love me! Only... it wasn't actually _him_. It was Mikel. And I figured if I changed him, he'd love me forever. He'd smile at me with eternal love; a love I've never had. So I did.

"Only, it didn't work! Once I changed him, he turned against me. Now he's just some guy warped in his own pain of being one of us forever. But I figured he'd eventually get over the pain, and I'd be right here for him to turn back to," She stopped talking, glaring at her hands now. They were clenching together with rage. "And I know that'll never happen. _Ever_. Beauty punished me again, and it always will. And I won't let _you_ punish me anymore than all the others have." Katha turned her glare at me.

The calm that had settled during Katha's story was now being replaced by panic. So this wasn't a story that was going to let me live. It was one that was going to remind her why she wanted to kill me! "But...but," I stalled, trying to think of anything to keep her from killing me, "But you're like me. I'm like you. Seriously. I was never pretty. I still think I'm not pretty. I spent my whole life as the fat girl with small eyes and a bird nose! And then when I hit puberty, in came the blood, hair, and pimples, but that was it! People would throw things at me, too. Nobody liked me at all. I didn't even have friends. It wasn't until a couple years ago until I started losing weight and pimples. I didn't even know I had boobs under that fat! So how can I be less deserving than you? Huh? You think you were the only ugly person in the world? I hate you!" Maybe I shouldn't have added that last bit. Maybe I should've said something like I'll wash your socks for three years if you don't kill me' or something.

Katha smirked, obviously set on killing me. "Not as much as I hate you." And I jumped up to my feet. I ran towards the stairs, but Katha was in front of me. I turned to run the opposite direction, and she lunged towards me. She grasped my ankle, and I sprawled to the floor, knocking over a lamp table. I clawed at the floor, and Katha started pulling me towards her. So I grabbed the lamp that had fallen and twisted around to bust it against her head. She let go momentarily, but it was enough for me to stumble back on my feet, fall, and half crawl, half run towards the long window that was towards the opposite direction of Katha.

I reached the window, but instead of moving away the curtain and trying to open it -- in which it could be locked -- I tackled right through the glass. Nobody _ever_ tells you in the movies how much that hurts and how hard you have to actually hit that window to get through. If I hadn't had a running start into that jump, I was sure the glass would have just cracked rather than allowed me through. And it allowed me with much relunctance, and much consequence. It was like being hit in the head with a brick. So when I hit the grass outside, darkness was happy to swallow me whole, which was good seeing as the window had also allowed me to be stabbed continuously with glass peices. And when I had landed, it dug the glass peices further into my body.

I couldn't have been out for too long, for it seemed like a second later, I was opening my eyes to blinding light. It burned into my eyes, so that I screeched before turning my head into the grass below me. I covered my head with my arms that felt numb and wet. Not to mention pain. And it wasn't long before I felt a sudden flash of burning pain on my skin. Still, I was worried that Katha would be after me any second, so I pushed myself to my bottom with much pain on my hands. I looked around, more like squinted due to the bright light, to see that not one vampire was out here to kill me.

And then it clicked as I felt the sun burning on my skin. It was more of a major irritation, not enough to actually kill me. Plus, the pain of the glass had fixed my body to handle any other pain. My head was throbbing, and something was flowing onto my face. Just before I could do anything, Cecilian, Drewdon, and Katha came towards me in the shadow of the house on the right, while Evanen and Mikel came towards me in the shadows of the left. I looked from one to the other, but I knew none of them could reach me because I was in the suns sight.

"See," Katha pointed at me next to Cecilian and Drewdon, "She's trying to escape, but she was too stupid to realize jumping through windows could knock her senseless. How are we suppose to get ahold of her now?" I wasn't senseless. There was a simple way to fix this. I looked over at Evanen, who looked as though he believed Katha. Still, I had to risk this because they could probably hunt me down if I tried to run now. Even though it was daylight. It's called waiting until night.

I winced before I pushed myself to stand. At least I attempted to. When I stumbled back onto my knees, I figured I had to use what I had. So I started the crawling, stumbling way of traveling until I moved into the shadows of the left, where I attempted to move myself behind Evanen. At this point, I collapsed and moved myself onto my back. Mikel had moved a good distance away from me, but Evanen bent down with fury written on his face.

"Why didn't you listen? You disobeyed me. You're not suppose to try to run or you die," he growled angrily. I was wheezing with pain. How do I explain this shortly and sweetly?

"Not running... from you," I wheezed before I pointed towards Katha, "Tried to... trying to... kill me..." And any other explaination I could have tried to tell was cut off when I became distracted by the blue sky. The white clouds were puffed like cotton candy, and they moved daintily towards the west horizon. What I wouldn't give to be a freaking bird, flying off to feel the breeze of the summer air. So many things I could be doing right now. Maybe if I died, I would be flying in the sun, feeling the breeze, and smelling the soft, wet clouds in the air. And Kyler would be there with me, probably a big, black hawk of the sky so that she could kill everybody she wanted to. I don't care what I would be. Not an owl. They go by night. Maybe a robin. So I didn't try to explain anymore. I accepted death.

Evanen understood what I had said. He also noticed that I had become distracted and was looking wistfully up into space. Probably near death. I had lost a lot of blood, and would keep losing blood until the glass was pulled out of my skin. He glared over at Katha.

"She was running from you. Don't think I wouldn't believe that, Katha," Evanen growled furiously, "Why can't you just go kill someone else for a change. Stop hanging around here if you don't like her so much. She hasn't done anything to you. And, if you must, be happy that she's all messed up because of that glass. You've succeeded in adding marks on her fragile skin, so go."

"How are we to know that she wasn't actually running away by herself," Cecilian roared just as furiously.

"The window... was unlocked," Evanen snapped, nearly losing control, "Why the hell would you think she'd be so stupid as to jump through an unlock window to escape if nothing was chasing her? And would someone like to explain to me why the living room is messed up, with a broken lamp? If I'm not much mistaken, I think I spot a peice of that lamp in your hair, Katha."

Katha was fuming. "She was trying to escape through the front door. I caught her, and tried to grab ahold of her. She struggled, so she _was_ being chased, but only because _she was trying to escape_!"

Evanen scoffed in disbelief, "She came into the shadows, back to me. If she was trying to escape, she could have sprinted off into the sunfilled land. We wouldn't have been able to follow her until nightfall, but someone trying to escape would have risked it." Nobody responded, and Evanen bent down to pick me up. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stare at the clouds. I never get to see them anymore.

"She's becoming more of a problem than needed, Evanen," Drewdon suddenly stated darkly, "If this keeps up, you're going to have to kill her, since you obviously don't want us to." Evanen didn't respond; he just turned to carry me back inside. Mikel suddenly reached with yearning and I felt his fingers brush over the back of my hand that was hanging limply behind Evanen. I didn't feel happy about that, seeing as I figured he was probably wanting to end my suffering. Then again, maybe I would prefer that, if it wouldn't be such a painful experience.

I didn't see Mikel lift his fingers to his mouth to lick off the blood that he had obtained from the back of my hand. He turned to see Katha watching him with a furious jealousy, and he ducked his head before he went into the house as well, guilt eating at his gut.

"We need to be more careful about that girl if we want to get rid of her without getting rid of Evanen," Drewdon stated to the two vampires left there with him. "And we do want to get rid of her. I'm afraid he might make a mistake at the Rising because of her." Drewdon turned to look at Katha. "And I'm afraid Mikel might be our chance, Katha. We might have to sacrifice him."

Katha was glaring at the spot where Mikel had been standing, but Drewdon's words had brought confusion in her expression. She looked at the ground before turning to look at Drewdon. "Why?"

Cecilian seemed to understand, for she said, "You've noticed how he acts around her. It'd be perfect. We'd say that we couldn't control him, and as a peace treaty, we could give his life to Evanen to sacrifice. Then the girl would be gone, and Evanen would still stick with the plan of the Rising. Perfect."

Katha frowned, obviously not happy with that plan. "She ruins everything," Katha growled with rage, but she added relunctantly, "Fine. He wouldn't have lasted too long anyways." And she stalked off with the pain gnawing at her brain.

"The race... is on," Cecilian said to Drewdon with pleasure.


	13. Chapter 13: Insomnia

**Chapter Thirteen**

_Insomnia_

I believe Evanen would have actually given me a bath if it wasn't for the fact that I found that incredibly embarrassing and disgusting. It wasn't as if I was invalid or anything. So I got kicked in the face by a glass pane. That doesn't mean I can't wash the blood off myself. Still, if I was going to bathe myself, he insisted on removing the glass from my skin himself.

Having glass pulled out of your wounds isn't as painful as putting them in there. In fact, if you ask me, it was more of a relief, seeing as they were starting to annoy me. And Evanen had a keen eye in spotting each peice that peirced my body. Mainly in my forearms and hair, seeing as I had tried to protect my face with my arms during the process of my grand escape from Katha. So I laid on my stomach -- for when I had tackled through the window, I had twisted around to land on the broken glass on my back -- while Evanen picked off the glass and placed them in a bowl on the side of the bed. I stared at the bowl and winced when I saw each glass with my own blood smeared on their clear surface.

"Couldn't have made a more subtle escape, could you? Maybe scream for me or something, seeing as I _was_ in the same house," Evanen muttered as I hissed at the pain when he wiped over a gash on my arm with alcohol. He'd just redo that alcohol bit after I took a bath, so he didn't bandage it up yet.

"Though I'm sure you'd like to think so arrogantly, when I'm on the verge of death, I don't tend to think of you," I stated angrily, though I was only angry because I was in pain. Still, I continued, "Even when you're the one killing me." And Evanen stopped pulling out another peice of glass from my back. With a sudden sharp pain, he pulled out the glass roughly, and I bit down on my tongue in pain. Now _that_ one hurt.

"Go ahead and take a bath. I've already put loose clothing on the toilet in there for when you're finished," Evanen said when he finished with the last peice he could find. I felt sore all over. Sure, I survived the Katha attack, but not without substaining injuries. God, how I hated her. Selfish. Jealous. Stupid. Still, I moved myself up, feeling a bit better seeing as my blood had had time to regenerate. At least I hadn't completely passed out for hours like when I was bitten. Now it was just the blackout after the incident! Progress is good.

The bathtub had turned a dark red after washing my hair, especially since head injuries bleed worse than real injuries on your arms. But after I had washed any signs of a battle in the underworld from my being, I felt better than before. Plus, the silky orange (pretty orange) pj shorts and loose white t-shirt didn't irritate my wounds worse than they already were. I spent a moment in front of the mirror, looking at my forearms and face in the reflection. Wouldn't these cuts normally need stitches? They were still bleeding, and it looked rather scary how open they were. Plus, the throbbing was starting to annoy me.

I opened the bathroom door to walk into the bedroom. On the side of the bed was a young woman with red hair, who was setting up a small tray of stuff on the bedside table. I hesitated, not sure if I should run or if she was just lost. But before I could do anything, Evanen appeared behind me and gripped my shoulders lightly.

"This is Doctor Reeth," Evanen said assuringly, "She's going to help with your cuts." I notice the needles then, and turned away from the woman. I felt suddenly uneasy about getting stitches without the normal hospital surrounding and actual white-coated doctors. It's not like I was afraid of needles. Hello, when you have diabetes (or use to), you tend to no longer be bothered by needles. Unless you really really hate needles.

Before I could even plead my case, Evanen turned me around lightly by my shoulders and led me to the bed side to sit down in front of Dr. Reeth, whose brown eyes matched the freckles on her face. She was human. It was simple to see how I knew that, seeing as she had freckles. Vampires tend to have to proof on their faces that they've seen sunlight. And even if they were born with freckles, they seemed to have no flaws on their complexion. So at the sight of a human doctor, I relaxed a bit.

"First I'll need to examine you," Dr. Reeth said with a kind smile. The kind smile that reminded me of Dr. Wells. Do all doctors obtain the facial expression of utter trust? I allowed her to examine all the wounds inflicted from the window glass. After a moment, she seemed confused. "So what exactly happened?"

"Ever seen Premonition," I asked before Evanen came up with a stupid excuse. Evanen looked at me dangerously, as though he thought I was going to escape through contact means. Apparently _he_ hasn't seen Premonition. "You know, the one with Sandra Bullock and that dude who plays Cole on the series 'Charmed'... Dr. Von Doom on the movie 'Fantastic Four'?" I like to watch movies, and apparently the doctor did, too, for she nodded.

"Well, what happened here was just about what happened with Bullock's character's daughter, when she ran through the glass door. Except I wasn't trying to run to get laundry... I was just running and forgot the doors were shut until I couldn't stop my momentum, which is why most of it got on my arms. And the rest got on my back when I twisted around and landed on my back instead of on my face," I responded with ease. Dr. Reeth was looking at the gash on my head that was still bleeding with slight disbelief. "And I have no idea what's up with my head. I guess I did hit the glass wrong or something, but I can't remember that."

This seemed to ease the doctors thoughts considerably, and she said, "We'll start with the double incisions on your arms before moving to the considerable ammount of damage on your back, and we'll finish with the stitching of the wound on your head. You're actually lucky it didn't get too deep. It's just above your temple, and it could have caused serious life-risking damaging. And it's not too long, either." And I wanted to scratch it.

The inflammed irritation of obtaining the stitches was enough to convince me not to get any tattoos for awhile. Especially when it came around to my forehead. The tugging, stinging sensation brought tears to my eyes, and I kept clinching my jaws tight together, in which the doctor would stop and tell me to relax my jaw so that I wouldn't interupt the process by moving my facial bone structure. When she was finished with the stitching, she went through to sterilize the outside of the stitched wounds before placing on the bandages herself. And then she left without even saying goodbye. I think she might have felt uneasy with Evanen's peircing eyes staring at her every move as though he would attack at any sign of a mistake. But she did stop to mention that it seemed as though I didn't show any signs of concussion besides the blackout directly afterword and the disorientation... which to me was just the action of becoming dazed at the wonder of clouds. Then again, dazed feelings _are_ a symptom of obtaining a concusion.

I started picking at the bandage on my head, wanting to pull it off to get rid of the irritating sting that I could feel underneath it. After a moment, I let my hands collapse to the sides of my thighs as I let my legs hang off the side of the bed. Now to stare at the wall with boredom. I nearly jumped when I felt something cold and metal pass over my head and lay lightly just below my neck. Evanen had snuck up behind me and was now clasping shut the necklace around my neck. He backed up to allow me to examine it for myself.

The cold metal in my hand was carved in the shape of a silver rose, with a blood red jewel in the middle of it. The way the metal absorbed the heat of my skin in one spot, but never became warm itself reminded me of Evanen. I looked at him with confusion, not sure why he had bought me something like this.

"It's a special necklace," Evanen explained, moving next to me, "You know. Kind of like a panic connection, so that the next time you need help like you've needed before now, you can just call my name and no matter where I am... I'll hear you... and I'll find you." I looked from him to the necklace, once again placing it in the palm of my hand to feel the heat of my hand absorb into the metal. For a moment, I just stared at it.

I bent my lips to the red jewel and said in a deep voice, "Testing, testing. Can you hear me?" And I smiled to show that I was just playing around. I let the necklace fall back into place on the bare skin under my neck. The continuous cool of the metal was almost comforting, even though normally it would be annoying.

It was a problem to sleep that night. And the next. And the next. It was as if I was no longer able to sleep, but everytime I did go to sleep, I'd wake up not thirty minutes later, ready for it to be time to wake up. Each time, I just laid there, staring at the dark distance until I nearly felt as though I were asleep anyways. There are many tips as to what to do to solve insomnia, such as standing up and going elsewhere until you feel as though you're going to go to sleep, so that your mind finds that the bed is only for sleeping. And sex, if you must. But I didn't feel like getting up to walk around, seeing as I didn't want to give Evanen any knowledge that I was having problems sleeping. It was furthermore a symptom of a concussion. I had no idea crashing through a window at high running speed could cause this many problems. And it didn't exactly show on the outside, either. Once my wounds stopped bleeding, I removed the bandages for my stitched and unstitched wounds to be seen by all. It mainly pleased Katha to see my supposedly beautiful attire scarred forever.

After the forth night of insomnia -- which is trouble sleeping if I forgot to mention the definition -- I was completely frustrated with being constantly exhausted yet awake. I started back on my track of staring at the wall. When I moved, I moved carefully, expecting the stitching to rip apart. It never did, but I still expected the worse. I used to trace the stitching of my head, but soon I got tired of the throbbing soreness that occured each time I bothered it.

I felt the painful jerk of being startled when a cool hand lightly gripped my arm. "You never sleep anymore," Evanen said into my ear with a note of concern. I closed my eyes in embarrassment. He had noticed after all.

I rolled carefully to my opposite side so that I'd be looking at him. He always slept in his pants, rather than just doing the usual pajamas or boxer thing. Everytime he'd get ready to sleep, he'd just kick off his shoes, take off his shirt, and go to bed with whatever else he was wearing. I enjoyed my orange p.j.s too much to allow them to go to waste, so naturally I'd just wear a t-shirt and my orange pajama shorts.

"It's not like I'm not trying," I whispered for some reason, feeling as though you were suppose to be quiet when it was bedtime. Being that there was no lights on in the house and that there were no windows, it was just about completely dark. So at the moment, I had been staring at where I guessed Evanen's face to be.

"Are you uncomfortable," Evanen asked sincerely. If you mean emotionally; yes.

"Not physically," I responded shortly, "My head keeps buzzing, and it's keeping me awake." There was silence, and I thought for a moment that he might have gotten bored and went to sleep. Well, staring in this direction would be as efficient as staring in any other, so I continued looking in Evanen's direction.

"Maybe you should stop trying," Evanen suddenly stated, making my heart jump with the suddeness of his voice in the black abyss. I heard him chuckle, and for the first time I thought that maybe he might know each time he scares me... and it might amuse him. Jerk.

"Right. Try to sleep by not trying," I paraphrased, and rolled my eyes sarcastically.

"Don't roll your eyes at me," he ordered in a humorous way that sounded as if he were.. gay or something.

Meanwhile, I frowned. I should've figured he'd be able to see me in the dark, but it felt weird not being able to see him in return. He could be... making faces at me or something. His hand could be inches from my face, pretending to flick me or something without my knowledge. With that thought, I felt as though his hand _were_ just inches from mine. But it was just psychological feelings.

"How well can you see me," I asked curiously.

"Perfectly," he answered.

I sat up, raised my hand to where I figured my chin would be, and I held up two fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?" I felt him move to sit up as well, and he leaned back against the pile of pillows behind him.

He didn't hesitate. "Two." I raised another. "Three." I lowered all of them. "None." I held all of them up. He didn't say anything. Aha, I got him. He was just guessing! But then I felt his cold fingertips trace over mine with such a perfect connection that I had no doubt he could see perfectly. "All of them."

"Well, that's not fair." Evanen didn't move his hand from mine, but instead started tracing my palm lightly. He gripped the side of my hand, and moved it further away from me until I felt the surface of his cheek, my thumb daintily resting on the corner of his lips. _There's_ his face. His... strange, rock-like face.

I moved closer so that I could place my other hand on the other side of his face. And when I pressed my soft fingers against nearly every inch of his rock solid face, I took notice to the fact that not one part of his face structure had in any way a weak point. Even the eyelids over his eyes seemed like a bulletproof wall to protect his peircing eyes. And his lips, which seemed to be less rock-like than the rest of his face, were smooth under my fingers. Yet I knew it wasn't that he was made of rock. It was his muscles. It was as if his muscles had been hardened to metal so that nothing could beat past them. By the time I was halfway through with blindly touching his face, my hands were nearly as frozen as his skin, yet comfortably so. It wasn't like holding your hands in a bucket of ice. It was more like a warm cloth that held icecubes being pressed against your skin.

"So... hard. And strong," I whispered when I let one lone hand just rest on the side of his jaw. I felt his face move into a smile.

"And yet you're so soft and weak," He stated with irony.

I ignored him. "Doesn't it hurt to be a rock," I asked curiously, "Ever get a muscle ache?" I was only half kidding at this point, but it was interesting.

"I actually wouldn't know if it hurts or not. I was born this way... a rock, in your terms," Evanen responded dully. For a rock, he can be really sensitive. But he didn't burst up and run out fuming like usual. "Isn't it more painful to be so soft? A grape?"

I snorted, "A grape? So what, now I'm a fruit that's used as Jesus' blood?"

"And being a rock is better? Now I'm some object thrown at cars and windows for threats? And building houses," He retorted.

"At least you're not being eaten," I laughed before I became serious once again. "Right. I suppose it does hurt to be soft, with mushy paper for outer protection. It's like what Cecilian said the first night you brought me here: Humans are easy to kill. And since we're easy to kill, it's easy for us to get hurt, too."

"How can you stand the pain of being alive," Evanen asked, sounding interested.

Normally, I'd respond sarcastically in a way that suggested he had said I were a pain to be alive, but I understood what he meant. "Well, it's like how you wouldn't know what it felt like to be in constant pain. I don't know what it's like to never be in pain... except when I've blacked out. And even then I don't know I'm not in pain until I've woken up to be back in pain."

When he didn't say something in return, I started to feel awkward, so I moved back to lay back down. It wasn't long before I felt Evanen move closer to lay directly beside me. "I wouldn't use this against you unless it was needed like a time like this," he whispered quietly so that I barely heard him. I turned my head towards him and felt the tip of my nose brush his.

"Use what," I asked in confusion.

"I'm going to help you," Evanen stated shortly. "Sleep." And with that word, I felt his voice echo into my jumbled head, latching onto each wild thought that was keeping me awake, and directing my each intention to the action of shutting down. And with that, the world was black -- not because of the dark surrounding me, but because I had slipped into the first peaceful sleep in days.


	14. Chapter 14: Near Accidental

**Chapter Fourteen**

_Near Accidental_

"Come on, nothing's going to hurt you."

"No, thank you."

"Hailence, you've been in here too long. You need to get out of this room for awhile."

"No. I told you, already. I prefer to be in here," I responded to Evanen's pleas as he stood with the bedroom door wide open. I prefered to stay in a spot where I felt less likely to be attacked by anyone. Unless Evanen himself went crazy. But beggars can't be choosers, and as long as I don't tick him off, I won't be the reason to be attacked by him. So I was firm in my decision of location, unlike Evanen. He was becoming worried with the fact that I had been refusing to leave this large yet small room for the past two weeks. Not even starvation was keeping me from staying in one area for eternity. And going three days without food scared him even more so that he _had_ to bring food in fear that I would become sick.

"Look, either you can walk out of here, or I'll carry you," Evanen threatened seriously. I hesitated, looking him directly in the eyes for signs of weakness. It was like we were about to have a shoot-off as though we were in the western times. Except he had the gun, and my goal was to dodge the bullets. I'm no Neo, either.

But I took my chances. "Nope," I answered, and there was silence. Just as I saw the clicking of light in Evanen's eyes - which was the sign that said he was going to attack - I dove to the ground and he dove towards me. While I dove under the bed, he lunged over the bed. Still, seeing as he was the quick one, I didn't crawl to the other side of the bed before I felt his stone hand grip my ankle.

"I won't let you take my people," I screamed randomly, and thinking of the movie 'Braveheart', "FREEEEDDDOOOOMMM!" I finished it off with screeching of defiance, but it was cut off when I was pulled out from under the bed and quieted by a hand over my mouth.

"Stop screaming," Evanen requested, and I defied that by screaming under his palm (though it was muffled). "Stop screaming," he ordered again, but this time I felt the order snatch onto my thoughts until I was incapable of screaming. He lifted his hand from my mouth with triumph.

"I thought you said you wouldn't do that unless it was necessary," I said in frustration, feeling slightly betrayed. I got a good result because for a moment I saw the sudden guilt in Evanen's eyes that he quickly wipe away with humor. I felt the thoughts unlatch quickly so that I knew I could scream again if I wanted to, but I didn't.

"It was necessary. You might've gotten their attention, and they would probably think you were trying to run away and that I was trying to stop you. And who knows, maybe two of them would've held me back while the other killed you so that I couldn't defend you," Evanen answered with a shrug. The possibilities were wide. Another reason why I didn't want to leave this room unless I was leaving to go home.

Just as I was thinking that, Evanen lifted me up and over his shoulder so fast that I forgot to breathe. He walked me out of the bedroom and towards the stairs. And then I was freaking out. "No, no, no, no," I started to whine in a pleading voice, "Please. I don't want to... what if... I just want to go _home_." Evanen stopped in midstep, and then I was flung from his shoulder and shoved into a wall hard enough for the oxygen to be forced out of me, but not bad enough to actually hurt.

"Listen here, Hailence, you're never going home. Get that through your thick skull," Evanen growled into my face, holding me against the wall. I understood that. I was going to be stuck here with him until he got tired of me. God knows, he might just get bored of keeping me as company and end up ravaging me until I was nothing but a pile of trash in his bedroom before killing me himself. That didn't keep me from _wanting_ to go home. And the fact that he didn't even want to think that I wanted to go home brought tears to my eyes.

Evanen sighed with frustration, his expression now a dark, omniscent look that made him look older than he actually was. "Sometimes I just...," He started, and I got furious before he could finish the sentence.

"What? You get sick of me," I hissed with rage.

He glared into my eyes, which were glaring back with just as much if not more flame, "Sometimes I get sick of you being so _human_. So scared and weak. I wish you'd just... I don't know." He looked away, frustrated.

"Well, so-rry, but in case you haven't noticed, I AM human," I snapped. "I was born one, and I will die one! And maybe I wouldn't be so afraid and weak if you hadn't brought me to a house of animals that EAT people like me!" I took noticed to how the word 'animal' hurt him as though it were actually a knife rather than a word.

"Okay. I get it. But you'll be fine, now," Evanen said, calming down to reassurance. He lightly lifted the metal rose from my neck to my attention. "See? I'll always be able to know if you need me. You won't have to worry anymore. They wouldn't dare try to hurt you with me around, whether physically or not. And right now I'm here physically, so you can stop worrying at the moment and summon up enough courage to go get something to eat from the kitchen." I stared at him, contemplating his speech. He did have a point, but I still felt the fear gnawing at me, telling me one step further into this house is a trap that'll lead to my ultimate doom.

"Well...," I hesitated. I did need to stop being such a chicken. "Fine. I'll 'summon up enough courage', then." He smirked and I scoffed. It wasn't like the 'cuh' scoff, in which is a scoff uttered when disgusted. It was more a half-laugh type of thing, which is uttered when forced to do something you really don't actually want to do, but someone convinced you to do it. And you feel slightly light-hearted about it because it doesn't seem like a big deal now that someone persuaded you against the fear. Got it? Let's all scoff together, then. One... two... three... hauh... or whatever. That's more of a indian call, but we got the picture.

So Evanen, now my bodyguard, led me into the kitchen where I cooked up something nice - seeing as he can't cook because he never saw a reason to. But I was fine with eating my fried chicken, potatoe logs, and popcorn with Orange Soda on the side. The soda was specially requested not long before this time. I was never too good with eating popcorn, but I dealt with it this time. Every since I watched that news channel in which they told about this illness called 'Popcorn Lungs' or something, popcorn scared me. I took care not to breathe when eating the popcorn, as well. I'm not even sure if it's really an illness, but I prefer to have regular, meat lungs rather than lungs made from popcorn or something.

"Evanen, honey," Cecilian said sweetly, an actual smile of kindness on her face as she walked into the kitchen. The moment her eyes set on me, her smile wiped from her face, and she turned to Evanen with a sour expression. "We need to go over the invitations shortly to be assured that we're all satisfied with who's all coming." And she flicked her head back a bit to silently order him to follow her before she turned to walk away.

Evanen sat there across the counter from me, looking in the direction Cecilian had gone with an expression of deep thought. He turned his head to peer his blue eyes to me as I took another drink of orange soda without appearing to be bothered. I put down the soda and waited for him to leave or something, and he gave me a small smile of defiance towards Cecilian.

I raised an eyebrow. "If you're skin is practically stone, how'd you peirce your lips? And how do you keep it where it won't close up the moment you remove it," I asked curiously.

"Evanen," Cecilian snapped from another room, "Move it along!"

"Well, I'll be right back. You stay here," Evanen said to me, pushing himself up to follow the towering, evil witch. He paused before he left the kitchen. "I put the snake bites in my lips myself, and I haven't taken them out. If they did come out, I'd just have to put 'em back in there. Same for the tongue ring." Simple. He left, and I felt the sudden emptiness of being completely alone in a room of this large house.

It was unsettling. Any small noise I made was somehow made ten times louder than normal. And the more I heard the loud noise of any small movement, the louder and sharper it seemed to become. I was becoming smaller... and smaller... until the room itself would probably end up eating me whole. There would be no point in trying to eat; I've become so small that any size of food would choke me. No point in drinking; one drop was the Nile trying to drown me. No point in thinking about doing anything; my thoughts were escaping from the pores of my head and crawling over the walls, ceiling, and floor. They were mocking me. Alone, they whispered. Aaaaallll alone.

I scooted out of my chair quickly, wincing at the scraping of the legs on the floor. Still, I was going insane sitting in this room, doing nothing. I moved my issues out of the kitchen, moving towards the other parts of the house. As I approached the living room, inching my way as quietly as possible, I peered into the room carefully, expecting Katha to be there to kill me. The first thing I noticed was that the window was already fixed and the room was clean of any evidence of my previous actions. Then, of course, my eyes went straight to the figure of Mikel on the couch of the living room.

He wasn't watching television or anything. In fact, he was laying horizontally on the couch, his legs spread out comfortably and his head laid back on the couch-end pillow, with his face smoothly expressionless and his eyes shut softly. Now if any one of the vampires looked like a statue, none looked so much like one as Mikel did at this moment. He didn't move an inch, not even breathing, and his whole structure was flawless in any wrinkles, blemishes, or any type of physical affliction. It was kind of a scary sight.

For a moment, I was just going to walk away as quietly as possible, but the moment I turned around, my hand hit the wall and a sharp pain shot the loud word "OW" from my lips. I pressed my mouth shut with a groan of pain, and when it subsided, I peered back into the living room expectantly. Mikel was still the same as he had been before, though. Wow. When vampires actually slept, they must literally be dead to the world!

Without even the thought of fear, I slunk into the living room with light feet. Even if he woke up, it wouldn't be as though I'd have to be afraid of him. This was Mikel; the only vampire in the house who didn't enjoy killing people. This was the one vampire that I could probably befriend well enough to guilt him into helping me escape from this place, after all. And right now, all I wanted to do was look at a presently dead Mikel. It wasn't as though I'd even have to talk to him.

I moved to the edge of the couch, hesitating at how close I was without him moving, but not even a small twitch of life came from him. At a second thought, maybe surprising him with my presense wouldn't be too good. "Mikel," I whispered lightly. He didn't move. I cautiously sat precariously on the edge of the couch just below his upper torso. "Are you awake?" No response. I didn't move or speak for a moment. Then I reached over slowly and moved my hand to swipe inches away from his eyes. No response. He was indeed dead to the world.

Never before had I actually been this close to Mikel and fully conscious. He was... gorgeous. I had not one doubt as to why Katha would fall for him, for he was so flawless that he just had to be extremely handsome even as a human. He looked stronger than Evanen, but maybe being born a vampire made Evanen stronger. I wouldn't know. Either way, he would definitely fit as one of those sexy, sports jock at my school. He'd probably be one that looked so good, yet being such a jerk would give people like me a need to block out any thought of him being attractive, making him out to be as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside. Except... from what I've known and heard of him, he seemed to be a perfectly sweet guy on the inside as well.

I moved my hand over to his face, and carefully laid the tips of my fingers to his cheek. I expected Mikel to jump up at any moment, but he continued in his death sleep, leaving no response except for his cold cheek to absorb the warmth of my fingertips. So I cautiously trailed my fingertips over his flawless, stone face. It was as hard as Evanen's face, as cold, except there seemed to be more of a softer touch to the topmost layer of his skin that Evanen didn't have. I lightly touched strands of his sandy brown hair, feeling its thick softness that seemed to absorb heat from my hand just as his skin had.

Suddenly, with a flash of movement, I felt cold fingers grip my wrist and another hand press over my mouth, pushing me against the back of the couch before I could scream. Mikel was now sitting up, moved in front of me, but his caramel brown eyes had that assuring, unharmful way about them that made any defenses of mine break down in seconds as he peered into my own eyes. Without saying anything, he let go of me in a way that seemed to show that he didn't trust himself to grip a human in his hands. He even lifted his hands to show that he wasn't going to hurt me.

I waited until my throbbing heart slowed back to a regular pace before I said, "I thought you were asleep."

Mikel smiled sheepishly, "I was trying to sleep like I used to before... when I was alive. I was just hoping you'd just... go away or something." And with the realization that he had been awake the whole time I had been poking around his face cause a wave of heat to my head. Not to mention that at the moment I was realizing just how attractive even his voice was.

"Sorry... I was just... you know," How do I explain this? "It's just, I've never actually..." I lowered my voice in embarrassment. "... touched a vampire. Except for Evanen. And he's like a special type, you know, so I was just wondering if you felt different. Because you do act different and all..."

"I understand," Mikel said shortly, now looking at my red cheeks. "You can, you know."

I hesitated, unsure what he meant. "Can what?"

He moved closer. "You can touch me if you want... if I can touch you." I felt immediately uncomfortable as to what that meant. This place is _weird_. But when he lifted his hand in front of me, he just held it there expectantly. And I realized he meant innocent touching. It would still be weird, but at least not that uncomfortable.

I lifted my hand cautiously and placed it on his. My fingertips didn't even reach past halfway up his fingers. At first, I was watching him carefully - just as he was watching me -, but the feel of that same soft top layer yet stone skin brought my attention to his hand. I poked at his palm lightly, and started to wonder if maybe his hand was literally stone through and through. If it was cut open, would there be muscles, bones, and blood in it? And where does the heat of my own hand go when his hand absorbs it? It seemed as though it just deminished.

Mikel curled his fingers over my hand, his hand swallowing mine like a wave of an ocean. I couldn't even budge my hand anymore, but I still found it weird how now my hand was numb from his. He moved his other hand towards me, but paused before continuing. "Can I," he asked, and I noticed he was reaching for my face. I nodded in permission, and he laid his fingertips over my warmed cheek before spreading open his hand to press his whole palm over the side of my face. The look on his face was that familiar yearning; envy even.

"I haven't touched actual human flesh... healthy and young... not since before I was turned," Mikel admitted gruffly. "And I can remember how then my own hand was warm, so that the heat from her flesh and my hand would combine and almost battle to keep each other hot. Now I can feel how even my skin is vampiric; sucking the warmth of your life from your own flesh and not returning anything." The pain in his voice brought a wave of sadness into my own heart, and I reached my hand up to lay on the back of his.

Mikel started to move closer to me, gripping the side of my head firmly to keep me from moving away. The sudden appearance of hunger in his expression brought a sudden appearance of fear in mine. I gripped the hand I had on the back of his tightly, trying to pry it off, while pushing the palm of my other hand against his chest. He continued to move towards me.. towards my bare flesh on my shoulder, and I started to panic. I attempted to scream, but only a small sound of disbelief came out of my throat.

When I attempted to scream again, I nearly got it out when Mikel ordered shortly, "Shh. Don't make a sound." And his voice moved to hold onto my thoughts in a more assuring, coaxing way rather than the dominant hold Evanen and Drewdon's voice had on them. Either way, all thoughts of making noises to get help disappeared ubruptly, and Mikel was free to kill me. Trapped. Tricked, unlike what Katha's approach had been. I couldn't even beg for my life like Evanen had said I would be able to do.

I closed my eyes as Mikel moved his head to the side of my face. Instead of feeling his cold lips on my shoulder and his painful fangs digging into my skin, I felt his cold, smooth cheek press against my warm cheek. I sat rigid, afraid of making any sudden movements. I could feel my heart pounding in my head, waiting for death to take ahold of me at last.

"If only my heart would pulse warmth through my body again like yours does," Mikel said enviously, and he breathed in the scent of my flesh, now cold from his. "If only I wouldn't have to smell that rich life anymore." He lightly put his lips over my skin, and I winced in preparation.

"Mikel, you let go of her or I'll grant your wish and make you not smell life ever again," I heard Evanen's sweet, angelic, bringer-of-life voice snarl from the entrance into the living room. Mikel hesitated, and as though he had been snapped back to realization, he shoved away from me in a way that suggested I had burned him. Without a word, Evanen gripped me from around my waist and pulled me away from the couch.

As we were walking back towards the bedroom, I felt the coaxing thought of not making a sound start to fade. And soon I whispered, "I'm sorry. You told me to stay in the kitchen. I didn't mean to..." I wasn't sure exactly what to apologize about. I felt the tears start to burn in my eyes once again. I've been converted into a cry baby.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Evanen growled angrily, "If that idiot would just stop being a wuss and go drink some real human blood, he would know how to control his urges better. Stupid moron.. should've been killed before he was even turned." I looked back down the hall as we reached the bedroom door. As if in an afterthought, I lightly touched my cheek where Mikel had put his own cheek at. I could still hear how painful he had sounded when he had said even his skin was vampiric. He had been forced into this. A vampire's selfishness had put him through this suffering. How was I to blame him?

"Maybe you're right," Evanen suddenly said, "Maybe you should just stay in here forever." I sat down on the bed, looking at him, but I knew he wasn't serious about that statement. It was just an accident, after all.


	15. Chapter 15: Sweet Cruelty

**Chapter Fifteen**

_Sweet Cruelty_

Something was whispering my name in my head. I wouldn't know why I'd be whispering my own name, if it was me, so I assumed something else was calling for me. Except I didn't want to wake up just yet. It felt as though I had just fallen asleep, and anyone who has just fallen asleep never wants to wake up automatically. Still, '_Hailence_' slid into my head coaxingly. Being stirred with the annoyance, I moved my hands from my throat and head to my sides, stretching across the bed on my stomach. Of course, I ended up hitting one fist against Evanen's shoulder, but it didn't bother him awake because I tend to punch him a lot in my sleep. Then I was relaxed in mid-stretching position, and I started to slip back into sleep.

_Hail-ence._

I rolled my face into my pillow, followed by smacking myself -- not in a violent manner -- in the face and rubbing both my eyes and my cheek at once. My hair was back in the frizzy, all-up-in-the-orbital-range state, and I had to shove it out of my face before pushing myself up partial. Then I looked around to see utter darkness. '_Hailence_', I heard calmly in my head, and now that I was mostly awake, I realized how insane it is to have your name being repeated in your thoughts as though by some other force. And then when another wave of thoughts that included walking outside into the garden came into my head, I knew for sure that it wasn't my own inclination that was coaxing me out of this room.

And, being the type of person who _doesn't_ go looking for obvious signs of trouble, I let myself collapse into my bed. I know, people usually are curious, and they start blindly walking towards the outer force like a stupid moth. But Hailence here is well into the lesson of 'curiousity kills the cat'. In fact, that's how I got here in the first place. So, I allowed myself to start drifting back into sleep; as safe as possible in this freak house at the moment.

_Hailence. _I ignored it. _Hail-ence_. Not going to convince me any more than I'm convinced now that I"ll die if I head towards some unknown voice. _Haaaaiiilllleeeennncceee_. No, no, no, no no no, you're not the one for me. _HAILENCE_!

I turned over sharply, my heart now pounding with fear. My mind is being infiltrated. I'm going to die. Being the only thing I could think of to do, I hissed loudly, "Evanen." I couldn't see him, so I couldn't tell if that woke him up. But I continued by saying cautiously, "Evanen?"

"What," his voice startled me in the darkness.

"Someone's talking to me in my head," I whispered, fearful that talking too loud would alert the intruder. Though... I hadn't heard my name called again since I had first hissed 'Evanen'.

I heard Evanen scoff, "It's called thoughts. I'm glad you're finally experiencing them. They won't hurt you, though, so go back to sleep."

Now angry, I growled, "I _know_ what thoughts are, you... Whatever. Something was..." I paused, now feeling very disgruntled. "Nevermind. I don't even want to tell you anymore." And I turned my back on him in annoyance. Evanen was already back to sleep. Jerk. My inner demon, which I hadn't heard from in awhile, told me I should start punching him and jumping on the bed so that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. I ignored it.

...

When I woke up, the bedroom was empty. I assumed Evanen went off to do something or another, and I stayed in the room for a length of time. But after I had taken a shower and dressed, I could only sit on the middle on the bed for so long before I got bored. For a moment, I gripped the silver necklace around my neck, once again attempting to make it warm without prevail. Then, after I convinced myself that I could call Evanen if any sign of danger appeared, I finally moved myself up to check if the door was locked. It wasn't. Which meant that Evanen had left the house and was going to be gone for awhile.

I once again hesitated, but it wasn't long before I was lightly stepping down the hall. All I needed was a bit of toast and I'd be satisfied until tonight. And it wasn't hard to find the kitchen, seeing as that seemed to be the only reason why I'd leave the room lately. Plus, on the way through the house, I took notice to how deadly quiet it was. Nobody seemed to be here. And when I caught a glimpse of darkness through the windows, I could see how they all would be gone. I also could take notice to the fact that my sense of time was becoming screwed up. I had assumed it was morning. It could be _early_ morning, but it was most likely late night. Either way, I was headed for toast in the kitchen, now considerably content with the thought of being left alone.

As I bounded into the kitchen, I halted ubruptly. Instead of Cecilian greeting me at the counter -- which she did commonly in order to try to catch me trying to escape.. and to threaten me to not get any weird thoughts --, Mikel sat in her place. He didn't look up, and so I started to back out slowly from the kitchen.

"Are you hungry," he asked sincerely, looking up to glance at me guiltily.

I shook my head, "No, thank you."

"You're afraid of me," Mikel stated, and he looked pained as he looked back down at his hands. I figured I should turn and run away, but something told me that would be rude. And so I stood there awkwardly with one foot raised from the heel onto my toes behind me, preparing to sprint away backwards at any warning signs. _If_ I could spot them this time. "I wouldn't blame you. For being afraid of me. Everything should be afraid of me. I'm a demon, a monster... I shouldn't even be alive." He looked up sharply. "That's what everyone else here says. I can't even be a _good_ monster. I suck... at everything." He looked disgusted with himself.

Well, I'm not a therapist, and I suddenly realized why they left these types of things to the therapist. And so, with my innermost professionality of psychology, I said sincerely, "It's okay. I suck at drawing, and it disgusts me. Especially when I had to take an art class. Horrible experience." There was an awkward silence.

Mikel suddenly made a small exhale of a half-laugh, and he said, "So are you actually hungry? Because I'm not, if that's what you're worried about." I hesitated, reaching to the necklace, but nodded before walking completely into the kitchen. I started on making toast for myself. Then I sat down a bit of distance away from Mikel. Better safe than sorry.

"I'm sorry about what happened before," Mikel suddenly said, that guilt still clear in his voice. It made me feel bad, as though it were my fault that he was in pain. Well, in a way it was, but how was I to fix that?

"It all right. At least you didn't kill me," I shrugged, "No harm done." Just mental damage, but no one cares about that.

"I would've killed you if Evanen hadn't come in," Mikel stated with pain.

"But you didn't. That's the point," I said with annoyance. I didn't know what exactly I was annoyed about; him whining or the people who made him that way. But either way, he got the point, and he stopped talking. I took a couple of bites from my toast before I said anything. "That mercy type of killing is helpful, isn't it?" Mikel looked at me dully, and I paused with the toast in my hand. For a moment, I just stared at him expectantly, and then I began to wonder if maybe I asked the wrong thing. "Is... it?"

Mikel bent forward towards me, his calm, carmel eyes seemed to be able to focus on the core of my own pupils exactly so that his eyes didn't twitch at all. It was unnerving. And he said coldly, "Even old... sick... dying people... can scream." That's a bit harsh. It wasn't as if I didn't know that, of course.

I hesitated. "Okay, is there anything else you can do?" I put down the toast. No more hunger for me. Solve world hunger; scare it out of everyone. Or make them sick. Whatever works.

"Nope."

"Not blood transfusions? Blood banks?"

"Nope."

"Well," I flustered. "How about becoming a vegetarian?" I finished it lamely.

Mikel sighed, "You mean animals?" I nodded. Mikel looked off in another direction as though looking for someone in the shadows before he looked back. "Animals don't last long. It's like transfusion of animal blood into humans; not a good mix. It makes us tired yet restless, leaving us more hungry than we were anyways. And if you were to keep that up, it's a monstrous result." He darkened his voice and growled, "They didn't tell me that. They just let me go on and on until..." He cut off his voice angrily, apparently torn between guilt and rage at that memory.

"And I'm sure not drinking blood doesn't work," I added curiously, not so much horrified as intrigued by this information. Mikel shook his head, foreshadowing his answer.

"I did do that at first, but that's starvation. Very painful, actually. It's almost like your body starts to rust; like blood is its oil. And it hurts to move. It scared Katha, so she waited until I was mad with starvation, and she kept throwing some random people in the room they had me in. And when you're in that type of madness, nothing else is in your head except relief," Mikel informed me shortly. "I don't know why she didn't just let me die while I was at my peek of suffering then."

For a moment, I didn't respond, not sure how to talk about Katha without remembering busting through a window. "I'm sure Katha just cares a lot about you," I said slowly.

"She just wants me to suffer," Mikel stated darkly.

"Actually," I continued carefully, "I'm quite sure that she just wants you to be happy... as a vampire... as _her_ vampire, actually. I mean, there must have been a reason why she changed you. Maybe you were appealing to her, and you've just been so caught up in this vampire change drama that you haven't noticed that Katha is still there... wanting you."

Mikel scoffed. "Well, I'm very sure I don't want her. I may have thought her attractive as human, but after you see the monster side of someone, they no longer appear the beautiful light of happiness as before. She was a lie, and she tricked me into this doom." He trailed off into a mumble, and I heard, "... just like a woman.."

I gasped, "I'll have you know I believe Adam was the stupid one to take the fruit from Eve. Everyone aaaalllllways blames the women; says women are the deceivers, but I don't happen to know any women who scout out for cherries to pop." And I smacked his arm, offended.

He smirked, amused. "Well, you may seem normal now, but if you were turned into a vampire, you'd be the ultimate woman of deceits. Usually a woman's talent is enhanced by vampirism." I couldn't help but smile myself. He moved close enough towards me that I could smell his soothing scent, widening his smile, and opened his mouth in preparation to say something. Suddenly he paused, his eyes traveling to over my head, and I felt hands grip my shoulders protectively.

"Evanen," Mikel said slowly, but there was no guilt in this greeting. This assured me that he hadn't been about to attack me in any way, and I was suddenly curious as to what he was going to say. I was suddenly wishing Evanen hadn't appeared to protect me from contact with Mikel. And I frowned as I looked up over my shoulder to see Evanen glaring suspiciously at Mikel.

"Mikel, it's nice to see that you trust yourself enough to come near a healthy human you'd like to devour. Finally deciding to hunt like a real vampire instead of scrounging around pitifully for the near-dead ones," Evanen questioned harshly, but Mikel didn't wince.

"No, I was just talking to her," Mikel looked from Evanen to me, his eyes softening, "And I see why you took her for yourself... and why you'd want to keep her safe so much." He paused, his eyes darkening as he looked back at Evanen. "But maybe this wasn't the best way to go, Evanen."

Evanen scoffed, still suspicious as he said, "Yeah, and I'm going to trust that advice from you... the most uncontrolled, disgusting vampire on this side of the world." He growled at Mikel, and bent down to my ear to say quietly, "Time to go." Before I could try to suggest staying longer, Evanen had a grip on my wrist and was pulling me away from the counter without taking his eyes away from Mikel.

Meanwhile, I snatched the toast, struggling a bit from Evanen's grip. And as I was shoved out of the kitchen, I looked back to wave goodbye to Mikel, who was back to his depressing gloom that had been set around him when I had entered earlier. We reached the bedroom when Evanen finally decided it was a fitting enough time to turn on me and demand, "You've got to stay away from him." He looked suddenly desperate, and I frowned in confusion.

"Wait, did I miss something," I asked, looking back at the hall as though I could look back in time.

"Something must have been triggered when he attacked you the other day. Maybe it started the day I allowed him to drink from you, but either way, he's starting to accept his vampire side. He's starting to focus his predator side on you," Evanen stated darkly. I was shocked.

"No, no, he was just apologizing for going after me the other day. He's not intending to hurt me... he said so himself." I couldn't help but noticed how I sounded even a bit hurt in this declination.

Evanen scoffed, "He'll want you to think that. You don't know vampires, Hailence. Especially the kind that Mikel ends up becoming. Coaxing you. Using disguises in order to gain your trust. And when they have you in their grip-" With such speed that I didn't even account for, Evanen appeared directly in front of me and had my neck in a paralyzing grip. He pressed his cold cheek against my cheek and said into my ear, "You're dead." For a second, I just waited there, breathing short, rapid breaths, and wincing at the grip. And then he let go, lifting his hand to rub the back of it against my other cheek.

Evanen pulled away a bit to look at my eyes with such an expression that sent chills of fear in my heart. But not because I was afraid of _him_ per say. Either way, he flicked his eyes from my own to my lips and back to my eyes. And slowly he moved forward, aiming to place his lips over mine.

Without hesitation, I thrusted my head away from his hand and his face before any contact could be made. "Don't," I said, my heart pounding in fear of the consequence of what I had just done. I lifted my hand to my lips, covering peices of it with my fingertips before looking back at him. "Please, don't." It seemed like eternity, standing there, looking at Evanen's shocked face, who was looking at my own pained, wincing expression as I bit down on my bottom lip with stress.

Suddenly, he moved away towards the bedside table, leaving me to stand there. But he said, "I nearly forgot, I got you something." He said this as though nothing had just happened, and I wondered if maybe I had imagined it. But that was just a small thought before Evanen was suddenly back in front of me, holding something behind his back. "Sit down." I hesitated, but obliged.

Before he could show anything to me, I said cautiously, "I don't really think you should feel obligated to get me things... it's not going to make me feel any more warmer towards yo--" Evanen cut me off when he opened his hand in front of my face with self-pride shining from his own. But I didn't freeze from shock... or from joy. I froze from utter horror. In the palm of his steel hands was a familiar object; a skull pin. Such a pin that had been in Kyler's hair the night she had died. And seeing it sent such a wave of horror and pain through me, that all I could do was stare at the pin.

Then I moved. I snatched the pin from his hands, and growled, "How'd you get ahold of this?" I was restraining myself from screaming. What had he done? Gone back to her corpse to bring me something to remind me what he had done to me and the people in my life? Was this some sort of cruel punishment for not just sitting back and allowing him to do whatever he wanted with me?

Evanen seemed stalled, as though he had been in a race, and some random object had flown in his path and he didn't know whether he should stop or keep running. "I uh... I hunted down where your friend used to live, and got something from her house so that you could have something to remember her by. Why? Isn't that something you human's value or something?"

"How could you...," My voice shook and broke as I clutched the pin in my fist, "How could you just bound into someone's house and take something... someone that _you_ killed?!" My voice rose as I finished the question, and rage pulsed through me as to bring tears to my eyes.

Now Evanen noticed he did do something wrong, and was confused. "I was apologizing for killing her. I was doing something _nice_... I WAS even planning on taking you to her grave soon so you could visit her or whatever it is that you people do."

I glared at him, "I wouldn't go to her grave with _you_ if my life depended on it. Why would I want you to go to her grave; to be around her corpse after you caused her to be that way?! That's sick! And how is that being nice? Standing over her death behind me as though gloating over it. NICE?!"

He suddenly shot directly in front of me, grabbed the bed posts on each side of me as if to keep from snatching and breaking my arms, and glared into my eyes. I didn't stir, and he snarled, "_Fine_, I'll take it back. I'll never mention anything about anything in your life; friends, family, anything. Want to know how you're dad's doing? I saw him. But wait, that'd be _mean_. So nevermind. Anything to please you." At the mention of dad, my face dropped from rage to hopelessness, and homesickness was suddenly flooding my thoughts.

"My dad? You saw him," I asked softly, hopefully.

Evanen's eyes were cold as he snapped, "Can't talk about _him_. It'd be cruel. Now give me back that pin, since apparently it's hurtful." And he held out his hand. I pushed myself back further into the bed, torn between relunctance to give up anything of Kyler's and yearning to hear about my father. Was he torn to peices about me "running away"? What if he turned to drinking? Was he affected at all? Or was he getting a new family? "Hand if over, now."

I shook my head, clutching the pin to my stomach. "Did my dad seem okay? Is he still hurt? He's not looking for me, is he?" My voice became desperate to hear any knowledge. And I felt desperate not to let go of something as precious as Kyler's favorite skull pin.

He moved closer towards me, his face still cold and void of any compassion. "You're not going to get anything else out of me. I don't see the point. And I don't see the point in you keeping something that belongs to the dead. You obviously didn't want it a minute ago, so give it back, now," he growled the last command. I didn't feel the word latching onto my thoughts, but I sighed deeply, tears staring to burn my eyes.

I moved closer towards Evanen, and with a deep depression, I pressed the skull pin onto his palm, closing my eyes and allowing a stream of tears to fall from my eyelashes and down my cheeks. "How can you be so sweet at times," I asked, my voice choked from trying to keep from crying as I slowly lifted my fingers from the pin, "And so cruel at others." I kept my eyes shut, trying to block any tears from falling furthermore, but the liquid could always leak past the barriers none the less.

For a moment, there was silence, and I was sure Evanen had departed out of the room as usual. Then I heard, "When he's home, he sits down at the couch and stares at the empty television for a couple of hours. Then he'll go and eat some chips, have a soda, and go to bed. Nothing too bad; just grieving regularly. He's still going to work, and he's been talking to Kyler's mother every once and awhile... if you can call it talking." My eyes fluttered open ubruptly, still letting out another stream of tears, but I was relieved at the news.

"You say it as though you've seen him before now," I said breathlessly, but without bitterness.

Evanen hesitated, but said, "I've been watching him every once in awhile. I figured it would make you happy to know that he isn't killing himself. But if he was, I wouldn't have told you, which is why I hadn't told you before." He opened my hand, and put the skull pin back in my possession. No longer was his face cold, and I sighed again in relief. He reached to lightly trace his thumb over the wet tears on my cheek, and pulled back to look at the tears on his thumb.

"It's odd," he said slowly, "It's... odd how human's produce tears, even when they're not physically hurt." He rubbed his forefinger against his thumb.

I sniffled. "Do vampires cry?"

He looked up from his thumb to look at me, "I don't."


	16. Chapter 16: Messing With My Head

**Chapter Sixteen**

_Messing With My Head_

At some point in the night, the temperature seemed to raise to 110 degrees. I could feel it, even though I was dead asleep, and being that I was asleep, I was suffering the pains of suffocation when my subconscious mind couldn't figure out how to pull the blanket off of me. For awhile, I was fine being spread out and feeling as though I was baking in an oven. But then I started panting, and I was starting to wake myself up.

The thing about waking up because of heat is that it's not an easy thing to do. Heat makes you feel completely drained anyways, so it wasn't like freezing -- where you don't want to leave the warmth of your curled body heat . Instead you're problem is just waking up. And when I finally did wake up enough, I couldn't actually move. I groaned instead.

I started to push the blanket off of me, but then a second thought came. I turned over, and pushed myself over towards where Evanen was at the edge of his side of the bed. He was laying on his stomach, his head turned the opposite direction of me as he slept. For a vampire, Evanen seemed to sleep like any regular human could sleep, as though dead. And sometimes I wondered about that, especially after Mikel had said not even he could sleep like he used to.

Without even considering what Evanen would think, I flung my upper torso across his back, laying the side of my face on the base of his neck and my arm was laid on top of his, my hand stopping a bit above his elbow in a half-clawed position. The sudden wave of cool from his body was utter relief on my part, and I sighed before drifting back into a more peaceful sleep.

_Hailence_. Okay, so I spoke too soon.

I ignored that voice that had entered my head last time. But, like last time, a sudden notion to get up, walk out of the room, and travel out to the garden for some unknown reason moved through my brain coaxingly against my own accord. Don't panic, I told myself. The key is not to panic. And I kept my eyes tightly closed, my heart starting to pound in my chest.

_Hailence, come to me._

Go away, I thought fervently. Leave me alone.

_I can't. You've got to come to me._

My heart now skipped a beat, and I gasped. Not only was someone trying to tell me to do something by entering my head, but they could hear my own thoughts, too. I felt Evanen suddenly stir from beneath me, but that didn't make me feel better.

_Don't tell him anything. Just pretend to sleep._ And another notion to pretend to sleep before slipping out of the room and into my most likely doom flashed through my mind.

"Hailence," Evanen asked carefully, "What's wrong?"

I hesitated, breathing rapidly. "Help me," I said quietly, "Someone's in my--"

Suddenly, a jolt of pain ran down my spine as that someone yelled: _No! It's important that you come to me! Come to me! Come to me come to me come to me come to me... _The words were suddenly vibrating throughout my skull, as though they had lost control as to their direct determination. I dug my nails into Evanen's arm, wincing at the sudden, loud jumble of commands in my brain that drowned out any other sense of the world.

Evanen quickly reached back to grip my lower arm, and gently pulled me off of his back and onto my own back. He moved above me, his expression one of determination while he spread his hands on both sides of my head. My eyes rolled back into my head as all sense of reality was blotted out by the reverbrating words twisting around all thoughts left in my head. It was as though the words were destroying any thought it came into contact with; thoughts of screaming, struggling, crying... or breathing.

Without panicking, Evanen bent down and pressed his forehead against mine, and suddenly there was a third person within my mind. The third force, Evanen, wasn't a voice of any kind, but more like hands. And he started trapping the reflective words into his hands, before crushing them from existence. At first it seemed as though he wasn't doing anything, and I felt darkness starting to surround me as my body refused to take in oxygen. And when there weren't but a couple of repeating 'come to me' commands, another order came into my thoughts.

_Breathe_.

I gulped in air as though I had been drowning, and the relief flooded my own thoughts back into order so that the few commands bouncing around seemed in the distance. My eyes fluttered open to see Evanen's face directly above mine, his hands still on the side of my head. For a moment, I was about to ask what had just happened. And then as though the sudden attack of thought-commands had drained any existence of energy within me, my body gave up, and I was back into the pits of darkness that came with passing out.

~...~

When I woke up, I was the opposite of exhaustively heated; shivering from a dead cool that had decided to dominate my body. My eyes fluttered to see Evanen's unbreathing face in front of me, his eyes closed in sleep as he kept his forehead pressed against mine. As for the rest of my body, I was pressed against his body, and his arms were wrapped around me in a protective barrier while my hands were held between mine and his chest. For awhile, I just stared at Evanen with confusion as I tried to figure out the bundle of memories in my head. But then I could hear 'come to me' being repeated into chaos.

I started to see if I could just slip out of his grip, but I might as well had been a corpse. "E-e-e-e-e-e-v-v-v-v-v...," I got stuck on the 'v'. Still, it was effective, and Evanen's eyes snapped open to look at me with obvious concern and startlement.

"Can you speak? Talk to me; what's two plus two?" Evanen pulled back away from me a bit to get a better view of me, and I hesitated.

"F-f-f-f-f-.."

"Oh, God, you're verbally impaired," he suddenly said with an aura of doom.

"J-j-just...," I let out a breathe of air, rubbing my upper arms before I could blurt out, "Cold." He suddenly understood, and completely let go of me in order to wrap me up in the warming blankets as best as possible. It wasn't too long before I started to get the feeling of numbness out of my lips.

Evanen suddenly looked guilty. "I didn't mean to do that... I was just trying to..," he gestured towards his head sheepishly, "Keep people out of your head." I covered my nose in the blanket for a moment without responding to this statement.

But then I couldn't hold it in any longer. "What was that, anyway," I asked curiously.

He shrugged, sitting up against the headboard, "Seemed like a classic case of someone losing control of their mind-entering power. Usually its common if the person is very inexperienced... but this person could enter your head _and_ hear your thoughts in the process, so I think it was more of a loss of control when it came to emotions."

I scoffed, "_Classic_ case of _mind entering_? Since when is entering other people's mind classic?"

"It's an everyday thing in this world, but still.. I couldn't figure out who was in your head. They can cover up their tracks pretty good, and that tells me this person is probably capable of more powerful things. A vampire that can enter a mind, control, and hear while hiding themselves at once is a dangerous one." Evanen frowned, as though sifting through his own thoughts to check if he was missing something vital. But I wasn't worried about that. What he had just said brought a new thought to me.

"But you... can do all of that. At least the entering the mind and controlling... and even breaking control of others... _along_ with blocking them out," I said slowly. Evanen moved his eyes from the wall to me with a look of inner amusement, but he didn't respond. "If you're so dangerous, what've you got to be worried about?"

"Not about myself," He said cryptically, but I could guess what he would be worried about. I continued back into silence, allowing that subject to be dropped. And then I moved closer to Evanen until I could rest my head on his chest.

"Thanks for helping me," I muttered, feeling the cold of his chest start to spread from the point where our skin met throughout the rest of my head. I listened for a sound of life inside his body, much as he had listened to the life in my own awhile back. There was a slushing sound, like something of a river being pushed sluggishly downstream. It was his heart. And even though it seemed like a slow, relunctant pulsing, it was pulsing nonetheless. It was somewhat of a relief, and I was satisfied in listening to something remotely human in Evanen.

"Hey, Evanen," I suddenly started, a question lingering in my head from a long time ago, "What's this talk about a Rising about anyways?"

The door to the room was opened without consideration of privacy, and Cecilian stood at the door with a look of distaste upon her features. "Evanen, I need you downstairs for your opinion," she ordered in an impatient, annoyed voice. I looked up at Evanen to see him not even showing a sign of obliging Cecilian's wishes. Apparently Cecilian saw this too, for she added quietly, "You can bring your bitch with you as well." I felt the sting of that term.

A low growl formed from Evanen's throat, and he snapped, "Fine." Cecilian glared at me before leaving the entrance of the room. I moved away from Evanen, who was suddenly more gloomy than he had previously been. I stood up and stretched, waiting to see what he was planning on doing. He stood up as well, slipping on a shirt from a drawer. Then he turned to look at me.

"Are you coming," he asked, and I noticed the slight hope in his voice.

I shrugged, "I guess." And I followed him out of the room, both of us being barefooted, and I was wearing my pajamas. It wasn't as if I was going anywhere special. Just going to watch an interaction between Cecilian and Evanen while being assured that nobody was going to attack me in his absence, especially since he wasn't going to be absent.

Evanen led me into the large living room, where Cecilian stood in front of a window and Mikel sat on the end of the couch reading a newspaper. Even though Evanen continued without hesitation, I paused, suspicious as ever and expecting to step on a mine bomb. Evanen turned around and gestered to the couch calmly before proceding towards Cecilian. Mikel looked up from the paper and glanced at me before continuing reading.

I went to the couch and sat down on the middle of it, leaning back to stare at my hands. Suddenly, Evanen and Cecilian were talking, but I frowned when all I heard was something of a "mlur" coming from both of them. Before I could wonder too much on that, someone was moved right next to me, and I turned to see Mikel sitting there. For a moment, I heard Evanen's warning on him accepting his vampire side, and I wondered if maybe it was true in how Mikel smiled assuringly, not showing any of the usual guilt in his expression.

"I thought you might want to read this," He said quietly, holding the newspaper in front of me. I continued to look at him, almost relunctant to look away from the only non-scary face in this house, but I tore my gaze away to look at the paper. One name screamed up at me, and I automatically took the paper.

"Nearly two months have passed since the passing of Kylee Madison and the supposed disappearance of Hailence Truit -- which has been updated due to evidence to an actually running away--, but one boy will not let this hold him back. Darwin Jets, furthermore known as D.J., is still on his search for his classmate yet.

'I don't actually believe she ran away, based on what I know of her, and I refuse to believe otherwise..' says D.J. And so this 18-year-old is raising funds in order to help bring Hailence Truit to the attention of the whole world, in hopes that at least one person knows where she is..." I stopped reading, biting my bottom lip. I suddenly felt inclined to cry, remembering the hurt expression on his face the last time I had saw him.

"Sounds like you have a knight in shining armor, there," Mikel stated with humor, and the image it gave made me break into a smirk. "Someone you know?"

I nodded, "Yeah, he... had a crush on me. Went out on a date once, if you want to call it that." I handed Mikel the paper, and he put it on the side table. I looked over to Evanen and Cecilian to see that they were still talking strangely, almost as though they weren't moving their mouths at all. I went back to frowning, trying to distinguish what they were saying.

"Cecilian doesn't want you to know what they're talking about. She thinks you'll get ideas," Mikel whispered slowly, looking from me to the two talking at the distance. I looked at him again.

"The Rising," I asked in a hushed voice, and he nodded carefully. "Are they talking in another language?"

Mikel smiled with amusement. "Not quite another language..." And he suddenly did the same thing, saying something that made no sense and was only spoken in a quick wisp. I just stared at him for a second, when Evanen suddenly had looked back to do the same thing, making Mikel respond before Evanen responded _him_... all so quickly that I hadn't even looked at Evanen before it was over.

"What... was that," I asked in utter confusion.

Mikel was looking at Evanen with a sudden guilt in his expression once more, and he looked back to me, wiping it off with a small smile. "He said not to mess with your head," Mikel stated, and I continued to look at him with confusion. "You know, talking like that so that you wouldn't understand what I was saying..."

"Oh," I responded, now understanding. "You don't have to be guilty about _that_."

He shrugged, "But anyways, it's not the concept of speaking another language. It's just talking extremely fast; such a speed that you wouldn't possibly be able to actually hear words. In fact what I had said to you was a page recitation of a Macbeth speech, but I'm sure all you heard was a mangled word."

Now that was interesting. "Do it again," I insisted, now completely looking at Mikel. His smile widened, obviously pleased with my attention, and he looked back at Cecilian and Evanen. He slowly turned back to me, bending towards my ear carefully, and Evanen's warning was once again in my head. But Mikel stopped just beside my ear, and when Cecilian started to say something to Evanen, Mikel suddenly whispered a breath of what sounded like air to me. I didn't hear a single word in that "speech".

"You think so," I suddenly heard Katha's angry voice from the other side of me, and Mikel back away from my ear with sudden surprise at her presense. "Who would've thought?" Katha glared at Mikel with such rage, that I felt afraid suddenly. I looked over at Mikel, but the startlement was now gone, and he glared back.

"I don't think you should be here," Mikel suddenly growled, and the sound of his rage was startling to me, seeing as I had never heard it once since I'd seen him. Katha seemed shocked as well, but she turned her expression to me and there was the eternal jealousy and rage in her eyes as she glared at me.

"Why not? Hailence and me are best friends," Katha snarled, and she gripped my wrist, tightening her stone fingers around my jello wrist until I felt the burning pressure coaxing me to scream. I opened my mouth, but kept the scream in.

"Let go," Mikel snapped, reaching across me to grip Katha's wrist. At first, nothing happened. And then I heard a crack and winced. It wasn't my wrist that cracked, though, for Katha let go of mine with shock as she grimaced at Mikel's grip on her wrist. He glared at her, and let go. "Don't touch her anymore, Katha. Go somewhere else if you can't tolerate her."

Katha looked pissed. "How is it that now _you_ can tolerate her, when it wasn't too long ago that you wanted to drain her dry? How is it that now you can stand to be around someone so young and full of life," she asked in rage. Mikel continued to glare at her without answering. And suddenly I felt a sting on my wrist, just under where Mikel had bit me on the first night here. Before I could make any noise of a gasp, Katha pulled up my cut wrist, putting the bleeding wound to Mikel's nose.

Katha was suddenly ripped from me, and thrown onto the ground with Evanen standing above her in rage. Mikel pulled me away from where she had been, and gripped my wrist in his hands. "How can you not want to drain her now," Katha screeched, "You've been drinking human blood, haven't you? NOW you drink human blood? Just so you can stand being around _her_?! You can die, Mikel! I regret EVER turning you, you pitiful, disgusting excuse for a vampire!" I turned from her to look at Mikel, and he was back to looking guilty.

He pulled my wrist to his mouth, and I tried to pull away. "No, don't," I pleaded, now scared. Meanwhile, Katha lunged towards me, and Evanen had to snatch her leg to keep her from trying to rip me to peices. I closed my eyes in fear, but Mikel just trailed his tongue over the cut, stopping the bleeding.

Evanen pulled me away from Mikel, standing in front of me to snarl at him. "You stay away from her," Evanen snapped with rage, and he turned to Katha and Cecilian, "ALL of you stay away from her. If _one_ more person tries to hurt her, I'm gone. No Rising. Nothing. I'm _gone_." And he growled at Mikel before pulling me out of their vision.

"Right in front of me and everything," He muttered with such seething rage. "Mikel, too. He's dangerous now more than I thought he would ever be. A late bloomer." I hesitated.

"I don't think so," I responded, looking back towards the living room. Evanen grabbed me by the shoulders, turning me towards him.

"Don't fall for it, Hailence," Evanen begged, "Don't fall for his trick."

"I don't believe he's trying to trick me, Evanen," I responded bitterly.

Evanen scoffed, "He's the one that was in your mind last night. Trying to get you to come to him so he could have you for himself. Notice how it happened only after he nearly killed you in the living room? And how he tries to get you to come to him by convincing you you're safe? It's his trick, and you can't fall for it. He's trying to kill you. There's just something about you that made him become an actual vampire."

I hesitated, remembering the voice in my head. It did sound a lot like Mikel, now that I thought about it. But I didn't want to believe it. He's the only one who's been nice to me, even when he was trying to kill me. And killing doesn't seem to be in his nature; at least in his emotional nature. He seemed more likely to be trying to be my friend rather than trying to kill me.

"Promise me you won't go near him," Evanen pleaded.

I hesitated.

"Promise me, for your sake, you won't," Evanen begged more determined.

"I guess," I said, "I promise."


	17. Chapter 17: Breaking And Making Promises

**Chapter Seventeen**

_Breaking And Making Promises_

Right now I was really missing watching weird movies with Kyler. Not stupid movies, but weird ones that we'd find at random times. Like 'Manic' or 'The Princess and The Warrior' - both having to do with insane asylums, but still weird. Once I even found a movie called 'Mysterious Skin'... the only movie in the world that made me feel as though I was about to vomit. But I held it in. I hadn't been able to find it again in order to let Kyler watch it. Still, I missed watching movies with Kyler. And making mac-n-cheese instead of popcorn to watch movies with. And orange soda. So that all my food and drink were orange colored. I love orange.

I've probably gained fifty pounds by being left to do nothing, laying on the edge of the bed on my stomach, with my hand hanging off the side as I stared at the wall. It was a peaceful experience, though, learning to warp myself into my own thoughts in order to pass time. I think I was actually teaching myself the true concept of patience. But still, I felt as though my mass was enlarging to where gravity was becoming heavier lately. The scale says I'm losing weight, but it's lying to me. Evanen say's I'm losing weight - it's scary to him - but I think he's lying. All guys lie. What makes me trust them now?

I'm fat. I'm going back in time to be a fat, nasty, pimple-face, boobless girl.

I felt a cool hand lightly press in between my shoulder blades assuringly. For a moment, I considered responding by either looking to see who it was (most likely Evanen) or saying something, but now that I was already in the zone of self observation of the cognitive state, I didn't even twitch.

"Hailence," Evanen said in a hushed voice, probably assuring himself that I wasn't asleep. "Hail.. I got something for you." At this, I sighed. What now? The dress Kyler was burried in? That is, if she was burried in a dress... Either way, I lifted my head and looked to Evanen.

"What is it," I asked suspiciously. The tone of my voice made him hesitate for a moment, but then he was up and pulling something out of his inner jacket pocket. For a moment, my heart stopped a beat, and then I lunged at Evanen. "You _didn't_!"

"Oh, not again," Evanen moaned, but I snatched the notebook from his hand.

"I can't believe you actually got this for me," I said in utter delight, sitting back on my feet on the bed. On the front cover of the notebook was the words 'Hailence Truit's Writing - A Complete Waste Of Time', and Kyler had her little notes along with mine to fill in the rest of it. My random notebook was back with me at last. I flipped to a random page to see the words "Knowing life's diseases are her curse..." and Kyler's cursive digging into the page almost angrily "Her only ease is knowing life could be worse." I traced my fingertip over the words, remembering Kyler's scolding me on that depressing day.

"You're not cursed," her voice hissed, "You're simply blessed with knowledge. Only those who go through the worse know more about the joy of being alive." And then I couldn't remember what we did after that. I wonder if she came back to life, who would know more about the joy of being alive? Her or me?

Evanen moved beside me on the bed and held a pen in front of me. I looked from the notebook to the pen, and grabbed it slowly. I flipped the notebook to an empty page, and for a nice moment, I just stared at it. And then I lowered the pen and placed the tip of it in the middle of the page. I rotated my hand into a circular movement, and watched the black ink follow the pen around the paper. Then I widened the circular scribbles until they'd reached the max of the paper.

"Truly poetic... I can see the charm in that discription of... okay, what'd you do that for," Evanen asked, looking at the swirling mark on the paper with confusion.

"It's nothing... which is exactly what I felt like writing right now," I stated, and flipped through the pages to show how many different pages had random things like smiley faces, stars, scribbles, and random shapes on them when I felt like writing something, but not writing anything. "Is it dark outside?" I shut the notebook and looked at Evanen.

He nodded. "Why?"

"Could I go to the garden?" Evanen looked at the door and hesitated.

"I don't think right now is a good time. I'm in the middle of something, actually," Evanen said slowly.

I bit my bottom lip. "Do you _have_ to come with me?"

This brought Evanen's look from the door straight back to me almost suspiciously. "I definitely don't believe that's a good idea at all."

"Well, why not? You can't possibly think I'm going to run away. You'd find me in a second," I pouted. Then an idea sparked. "Besides, you wouldn't have to worry about the others coming after me. Not after that threat you said. I'm sure they wouldn't try anything, seeing as they're obviously all for this criptic 'Rising'. And if I feel as though anybody else is around, I'll call for you." And I tapped the silver necklace around my neck. Suddenly, I realized how ironic it was that I was the one trying to convince Evanen to let me out of the room rather than the other way around.

Evanen hesitated, obviously not liking the idea of this, but I could see he was going to let it by. "Fine," he said, "Come on, then." I got up and went around the bed to follow Evanen out the bedroom. He led me downstairs while I was listening for any noises, but there was none. It seemed like everybody was dead or something. But the moment we reached the back door, Cecilian appeared.

"Where do you think you're going," Cecilian asked testily.

"_I'm_ going nowhere," Evanen said boredly, and he turned to me. "Remember.." He tapped the necklace and I nodded. I took one last glance at Cecilian, who was giving me such a look that I absentmindedly reached up to touch the light scars on my cheek from her swipe. I walked out the backdoor, and didn't paused to enjoy the outside air until I was pretty sure nobody was at the door anymore. Then I took a deep breath, slowing my walk towards the garden and looking up at the sky to see the million spendid stars against the black of space.

I entered the edge of the garden at last, my notebook still in my clutch, and continued to slowly glide towards the fountain. When I got to the edge of the pond, I bent down, placing the notebook beside me, and looked at the dark water. I could barely see those nervous fish flitting about underneath the dark sheeth, but I wasn't that into fish anyways. What I did like was the feel of water, so I continued to touch the tip of my fingers to the surface of the pond. I pulled back my hand to rub the water on my fingertips together. Then I turned to grab my notebook. There was one problem, though. It was no longer beside me.

I hesitated, looking at where I had placed it as though waiting for it to appear again. Then I continued to look from the spot to behind me. Nobody was there. I looked at the water. I didn't _see_ any shape of a notebook underneath the blanket of the pond. I looked back behind me, unsure as to whether I should be worried or not.

".. A Complete Waste Of Time, huh," I heard a voice say from the opposite side of me, and I twisted around to look, my heart jolting with startlement. Mikel sat there, looking at the title of the book, but not opening it. Then he looked at me. "Sounds delightful to me." And he held it out for me to take. I hesitated, but took it back from him.

"I didn't hear you come," I said slowly and unsurely. I flipped through the pages real quick-like in order to make sure they all were there. Not that I'd know if one was missing or not, but it assured me for some reason.

"I was actually here already," Mikel stated assuringly, "I heard you coming, but I was trying not to startle you too much."

"Oh," I said, looking back down at the notebook.

Suddenly, Mikel said, "So, what do you write in there."

I hesitated, and opened it randomly. "Different things. Sometimes just facts, or things I want to remember. Other times it's small stories... or poems." I flipped the page, my brows furrowed.

"Can you read me something," Mikel asked curiously.

I thought about the promise I told Evanen, and I stood up suddenly, "I think I need to go." And I started to leave when Mikel was suddenly blocking my way. My heart jolted again, and I realized I was far away from the house, out here by myself with Mikel. What if everything Evanen had said was true. I gripped my necklace suddenly, getting ready to call for Evanen.

"Wait," Mikel said, taking notice to my sudden panicked structure. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything, I swear. It's just.. you don't have to go right now. I mean, everybody's busy at the house right now..."

"I-I know, I just think that maybe it's not good to stay here.." I started, and moved to go around him. Mikel blocked the way again.

"What's wrong? Did I say something or do something? Did someone else say or do something? Haven't you noticed that I've been trying to prove to you that I'm not intending to hurt you," Mikel asked, suddenly looking hurt. I was now the guilty one, and I hesitated before letting go of my necklace. Then I bit my lip.

"It's just...," I sat down at a bench, followed by Mikel, before continuing in a mutter, "You were the one in my head not long ago. Telling me to go out here." I looked up carefully. "Weren't you?" Mikel looked a bit sheepish, and I knew it was true.

"I didn't mean to mess you up like that or to scare you. I was actually.. well.. I was planning on trying to get you out of here," Mikel responded guiltily. I smiled, realizing I had obtained my goal without even knowing it. But then I thought about how strong Evanen was, and how he could probably defeat Drewdon.. and how this necklace could probably be a mic or something.

"I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon," I said in defeat. "We'd probably have to wait until Evanen became less attached to me." I put up my hands into claws and said, "He's like a bandaid... can't rip him off of me or it'll hurt, so you got to wait until my sabaceous glands excrete enough oil to just make him slide off like ice." And I put down my hands.

"But before the Rising, of course," Mikel stated thoughtfully.

"Yeah, bef-," I paused, "Wait, why before the Rising?"

Mikel turned to look at me, a silver film glowing over his eyes that I'd never noticed before. "In case he tries to give it to you."

I hesitated, "Give what?" Not AIDS, not AIDS, not AIDS...

"Give... do you not know what the Rising is about," Mikel asked in confusion. I merely stared at him, and he looked disturbed. I like making people looked disturbed by staring at them, but something told me that being ignorant towards the Rising wasn't a thing to joke about. "Everybody's so worried about you messing up the plan with the Rising, and you don't even know what it is?"

"I guess not," I said, "I thought it was something like an initiation... you know, how in psychology they talk about initiation rites, where people are celebrated for passing a stage in life. Like promotions or graduations... and in this case I figured it was a vampire thing for celebrating your 21st birthday or something." Mikel had turned into stone. I stared at him a moment, mainly at his eyes which were glowing in the darkness with that silver film... it must be an animal thing to help him see. But he wasn't exactly looking at me. Just through me, as though he were indeed a statue. I went back to biting my lips, and tore my gaze from his eyes to my notebook, flipping through the pages to read through them. I decided I wasn't going to try to wake him up.

"He's throwing a party," Mikel suddenly said, and I continued to read to show that I didn't quite understand that random burst of thought. "Evanen... well, more like Cecilian... they're throwing a party soon, inviting plenty of our type of people, in order to celebrate his 21st birthday. That's the initiation rite. The Rising isn't a celebration... it's more of a... set date of Evanen's true purpose." I looked up from the notebook.

"And what's his purpose," I asked curiously.

Mikel looked back towards the house before saying in a quiet voice, "Power."

I was now putting this statement together with the before one. "So, when you say 'in case he gives _it_ ' to me... you're saying before he.." I didn't feel like finishing that sentence, but I knew it was right by Mikel's affirming look. I could hear Cecilian's threat of not to try to get Evanen to turn me. Not to screw up the Rising. They're afraid he'll turn me, then. "I don't... but I haven't... I can't stay here _forever_!" I stood up, looking around as though there would be flashing red lights that said "Exit".

Mikel gripped my wrist and pulled me back down on the bench. "It's all right. I know what you mean... you can believe that." He looked back at the house once again. "Listen, Evanen's about to come out here to get you. I know he told you not to talk to me and all, but I need you to promise me something very important."

I looked in the direction of the house but couldn't even see the edge of the garden. "I don't know," I said uncertainly, not exactly ecstatic to have to make _another _promise. Mikel lightly moved my head to face him.

"The party... I said it has a lot of people like us there. I need you to promise me that you won't leave Evanen's sight," Mikel said, sounding suddenly desperate. He glanced into the darkness once again.

"I... I don't know," I said with hesitation, feeling suddenly nervous.

"If you do get out of his sight, find me," Mikel ordered firmly, "Don't talk to anybody or wander off anywhere. I'll be nearby, so you won't have to look too far, okay? Promise?"

I bit my lip again, looking down, "I promise." When I looked up, he was no longer there. I looked around with wonder, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Vampires are weird. Whatever happened to goodbye or something? But, no, all I got was darkness. For some reason, I felt unexplainably depressed. It was the same way I felt when Kyler would leave from visiting my house.. a sort of feeling as though...

"Hailence, you need to come back in, now," Evanen suddenly said from behind. I continued to look at the spot where Mikel's eyes had been not a second ago. "Was someone out here?" Evanen started to sniff about, and - afraid he would sense Mikel's previous presense - I jumped up.

"Okay, let's go."

I stood up and walked over to Evanen, and to further distract him of his surroundings, I held out my hand expectantly. Without even hesitating, Evanen gripped my hand and started walking ahead to tug me along. I think it's a type of technique he uses to remind him to walk slowly... which in my language is known as speed walking. But when I tugged back on his hand a bit, he'd slow down in his own walk.

For a moment, I thought it must suck in some sort of way to be a vampire. Being too fast, too strong, too advanced for the world they're in. So in order to fit in, they'd have to slow themselves down. And I myself hated to slow down for anything. I liked to go as fast I could... such as a computer. Who _hasn't_ gotten mad at a computer for stalling a fraction of a second.

I kept looking behind me to see if maybe Mikel would be following us, or if I could spot a shadow of him off in the garden - which was now a good distance away. But there was only blackness. Maybe I'd be able to see better if I had silver films over _my_ eyes. Then I could see through anything. At least, that's what I was pretty sure that film meant. What else would it mean? For a second, I wondered if vampires could see in _color_ in the dark. Because we can't see colors when it's dark. Only shades. Once light is showing, our rods (used to see in the dark) go out and our cones (used to see color) go on. Then in the dark, the rods turn on, and the cones turn off. So vampires most likely are like animals, with loads of rods, but not as many cones.

"Hey, Evanen," I said slowly. He turned to look at me, and I noticed automatically there was no film over his eyes. "Can you see extremely well in the dark?" He smiled and looked back towards the house.

"I figured you'd know that by now, seeing as I'm almost absolutely positive we've had this conversation before," Evanen stated. I remembered the blur of that dark night when I couldn't sleep, testing him to see if he could actually see me, and the feel of his rock-face.

"Right. Rocks and grapes," I said in realization. "Well, how come you don't have some sort of reflectant light on your eyes like cats and owls and stuff?" We turned a corner into the view of the house. I glanced up at the stars in the sky again, knowing I probably wouldn't see them for awhile. I felt like a dog.. a regular house pet, who doesn't get to go outside except for certain periods of time. I used to wonder what it would be like to have to live in a world of a box, never to know about the outer world. Sometimes I'd wonder if they'd ever even questioned about what was past the world. Or if they just took it for granted, like how I do with the Earth. Just assume this is the limit of life.

"I don't know. I'm weird," Evanen replied, almost annoyed, but he contained himself as we were entering the house. "Look, I just want you to know, we're having a party here."

"What's the party for?"

"It's just a party.. type of happy birthday thing," Evanen responded shortly, "And I've got it scheduled for you to be fitted for a dress and all that stuff girls do to satisfy society." He sounded like anarchy. I'm not sure what that means or if it's right, but in my head, he sounded like anarchy.

"Fitted for a _dress_," I spat as though the thought of it tasted horrible, "Can't we just go find a two dollar one from a flea market?"

"Absolutely," Evanen stated, and I smiled, "Not." I frowned and rolled my eyes. That's when I spotted Mikel watching television in the living room. I paused, confused as to how he could be sitting there as though he'd been there all along. Evanen pulled me along, glaring at Mikel, who wasn't even looking our direction, but was watching television aptly.

"One more thing," Evanen said darkly, "During the party, I want you to.."

I interupted him, "I know, I know. Stay in your sight at all times. And when I lose sight of you, I'll scream until you find me again. I promise." And I gave a big shark-smile from _Finding Nemo_. That was always my favorite part of _Finding Nemo_; the part when the shark showed up and gave that big ole smile that showed his three rows of his bottom teeth, and then he'd say in that deep, slightly breathy voice... 'Hello'.


	18. Chapter 18: What A Party

**Chapter Eighteen**

_What... A Party_

Now, I'm not a type of girl who makes a fuss about dressing up or anything. In fact, I went to a nice couple of weddings of a such where I had to dress up. Sometimes I was even a bridesmaid, but I was just fine wearing a common dress and letting my hair down sweetly. Being this type of girl, it's not often that I would struggle _this_ much to leave the headaches to the more tom-boyish types of girls who seriously don't know how to suck it up and be a man. (I take notice to the contradiction in that statement.) But never had I encountered someone so difficult as Lady Lilola.

First of all, her name is a tongue twister in itself. I feel the urge to just change it to Lady Lola. Why the 'Li'? (Li as in Pie). Li-Lola... why? Anyways, besides the fact that she's a vampire and I clearly disgust her for some reason, she can be very unreasonable and extremely uninclined to compromises. So this struggle went along with something like this:

"What color would you prefer the dress," Evanen had asked Lady Lilola. HER over _me_. If I wasn't much mistaken, I could swear I was the one going to be put in the dress.

Lady Lilola looked over me incredulously. "Yellow will be perfect," She stated. I made a face.

"Yellow? No, thank you," I responded in distaste. I knew my favorite color was orange, which is close to yellow, but it's not yellow. Yellow is gross. It's... too bright. And happy. And stupid. Black. I like black.

"You will wear whatever I tell you to wear," Lady Lilola snapped, her sharply thin face scary at the glare of _her_ yellow eyes. She was beautiful... most vampires seem to be beautiful, but I was getting used to that. And now I could look past the beauty just enough to see the evilness of their features. It was becoming scary.

Except for Mikel. He has no evil features underneath.

"I will not wear yellow," I growled, "I'll simply have to go naked."

"Fine," Lady Lilola snarled, crossing her arms and tapping her sharp nails against her upper arm in a threatening way.

Evanen stepped in between us and gave me a look before turning to Lady Lilola. "She won't be going naked. Get her dressed. Compromise, drug her.. whatever. As long as you don't injure her and see that she's ready in two hours." And he looked at us firmly before turning to leave the room. There was a huge box of accessories, along with dresses, makeup (ha), shoes, jewelry; the works.

Lady Lilola turned to me once Evanen had left to stare determinely. "How about pink?"

I wrinkled my nose, "Black."

She scoffed. "Red."

I thought about it. Wasn't as bad, but no. "Orange."

"Absolutely not, it's a disgusting color," I was now offended deeply. "Gold."

"Silver."

"If you want silver, how about grey?"

"Grey? Gross. Green."

"No, purple."

"I prefer _brown_."

Lady Lilola finally stopped, looking upset. I merely knew this had to be bad, seeing as we hadn't even looked at the dress yet. We were picking out a color and already arguing. "I've got it," She said, suddenly glowing with an idea, "Baby.. Blue."

I scoffed, "_Dark_ blue." Lady Lilola sulked in disappointment. But after an argument over the shade of blue, we decided on a nice blue in between baby blue and dark blue. Along with silver linings. Now was time to pick a dress out of all the blue ones she had brought. A lot of them went all the way to my feet, and those I dismissed. Then there were a couple that barely reached my mid-thigh. Dismissal! I decided on the ones that went down to my knees. Then I started looking at the upper torso part.

One was strapless. No thanks. I'm sure I'm tempting enough to vampires. Another had no back. Seriously. It was bare all the way to the tip of my butt. No.. thanks... Another had missing cloth in the front; showing my cleavage... more than that, by having a slit down just below my belly button. Lady Lilola said 'beautiful'... I said 'horrific'. That left two. One covered my back and front by being a turtleneck. It also had a big ass bow on the back... eh. Okay, I'm not that descrete. So that left the last one, which was pleasantly blue, It had spaghetti straps, and zipped in the back to below my shoulder blades. There was just a tiny bit of cleavage, not enough to even get kicked out of school. It was tight around the upper torso, but not disgusting.. you know, where it's so tight that you suddenly grow fat rolls that flow over on top of the dress and your boobs scream for mercy. It was loosely tight.. and then at the waist, it flowed out like a spring dress worn just to go walking by the beach. And the end of the dress was spiked in a way that reminded me of Kylee's hair.

Lady Lilola suggest fur to go around my shoulder. I made a face and once she realized this was not a feat to be obtained, she went straight to the hair. I was looking in the mirror.

"I think we should dye it black," Lady Lilola stated, holding a pencil to her lip in thought. She used the pencil to try different styles with my hair. I turned sharply.

"No dying, thanks," I hissed.

"Fine," Lady Lilola snapped, and she tugged back on my hair rough enough to bring water to my eyes. "I'm putting it up in a bun." More vampire bait. Bite here, it'll say. I started to open my mouth, and she interupted with, "Let me guess? No?"

"How about leaving it down," I suggested.

"As long as I can perm it," She stated. I could smell the hairspray already.

"Okay, let's just go with this. You want it up, I want it down.. I'm thinking half-and-half," I said.

"And you want it straight while I want it permed... so ringlets, then?" I nodded, glad we could come to a compromised quickly this time. We only had forty-five minutes left. So she pulled my hair half up, leaving strings of hair out for bangs. And then she worked on putting it up in hot-rollers. At least it wouldn't be a poof-ball of curls. Just light falling ones. Then Lady Lilola appearing in front of me, "Now for makeup."

I shook my head, "No makeup. Eyeliner is all I need."

Lady Lilola now looked dark. "You humans do think you're perfect, but I'll have you know that your skin is horrible, it's dry in some places, oily in others, it's different colors varying on the place, it's scarred from previous acne, and you look blotchy when you blush." This last bit she could tell by my now blushing appearance.

"Well," I said, flustered, "I don't care. I'd rather be ugly than uncomfortable. And trust me, piled on makeup is uncomfortable."

Lady Lilola moved closer, "I could make you extremely beautiful. You'd really please Evanen. Completely win him over.."

I scoffed, "Not. Interested." She rolled her eyes.

"Fine," And she started on eyeliner first. I don't know why I couldn't do it myself, but she insisted. Then she pulled up red lipstick and I sucked in my lips so that she couldn't reach it. "No lipstick, even?"

"Chapstick, lipgloss, carmex... whatever, but no lipstick," I said shortly.

She put on chapstick then, and traced it over with a shimmery lipgloss that had a blue tint to it. "Can I at least put some eyeshadow on you? A nice blue would do wonders..."

"Nope, blue is for sluts," I stated, crossing my arms. And she spent a nice ten minutes showing me different eyeshadows that I disagreed with until I finally allowed a bluish glittery type to be lightly placed only as if eyeliner above my eyelashes. Then I denied her anything else to do with makeup. No blush. No powder. No mascara (dear God, no mascara). No eyebrow pluckage. No eyebrow linage. My face was as perfect as I would allow her to get. Which wasn't perfect at all, but to my untrained eye, it was fine.

She let down the hot-rollers, allowing loose curls to flow in ringlets around my head. She didn't stop to look inquisitive apon her work... not technically her work, but her compliance on me. She went straight to a box and opened it to reveal jewelry. Not one bit of jewelry was of my normal choice. It was all gold, fine silver, and diamonds. Before I could say anything, she pulled out a pair of earrings that had dangling diamond teardrops apon them. I backed up.

"Oh, no you don't," Lady Lilola said.

"Why can't I just wear my normal jewelry," I asked stubbornly.

She glared at me, "Listen here. Either you put on these jewels or I pin you down, perm your hair, suffocate you with makeup, and then you can wear whatever jewelry you want!" She looked extremely scary at the moment. I thought for a second, and eventually sucked it up. One must make compromises, and if just wearing diamonds is the only risk I have to take in order to leave the rest of me alone, then I'd take it. So I put on the teardrop earrings, along with a matching, danty necklace, and a loose bracelet. I got her to leave the rings alone, though, for even she figured it'd be a bit gawky with my less formal appearance than she wanted. My wrists and fingers felt naked without their usual flourishing death jewelry.

Now she talked about painting my fingernails. This was resolved quickly with clear nailpolish that held blue specks of glitter within it.

"One last thing," Lady Lilola said, and she pulled out two high-heeled shoes that were diamond studded. I looked at them as though they were hers and she just wanted to show them to me. As if it were some sort of joke to suggest I wear them. I'd die. It's simple. Usually I just get those heels that are barely off the ground. I can walk in those. They're pretty easy. But _these_?! Hah..

"No... no, thanks," I stated, stepping back from the shoes.

"Either you wear these or you go barefooted," Lady Lilola threatened...

And there I was, walking towards the stairs beside Evanen; finely dressed -- not completely formal -- and without shoes. Evanen was at first confused, and then he just rolled his eyes and let it go. Which is good because I could as easily fight against him as against Lady Lilola, who was following behind us with such a moody aura around her that I was afraid to look behind me. Who knew, she might be waiting for a look, so that she could just snap some human girl's neck for being so against her wishes. I could have dressed up like this myself without her help, for crying out loud.

When we reached the top of the stairs, I could finally see the mass of people (vampires) talking to each other almost joyfully. Who knew that vampires had happy conversations. I could already imagine it. "Caught a good one yesterday, Tommy. Blood type was A-positive. What a screamer, right?" Stupid laughter follows this. Then again, I don't usually laugh about food with my friends, so I could be wrong. Anyways, we were making our way down the stairs when the group talking in front of the stairs said, "Happy Birthday, Mr. Draele!"

There was a sudden clapping around the mass of vampires, and Evanen smiled pleasantly, stepping ahead of me to greet the other vampires. Before he reached them, he turned around to look at me and muttered, "Remember... in sight." I nodded, and he continued to greet the others. Meanwhile, I backed away from that group to move to a less occupied area... in Evanen's sight, of course. I took noticed to the fact that everytimed I moved, a couple of heads would look away from their occupation and towards me. Some had hungry looks, others had curious... and some were just plain bored looking. Those were the ones I preferred, for they looked away almost immediately from boredom. Either way, I usually ducked my head, letting my hair fall into my face to attract less attention.

At some point, I grabbed the diamond earrings from my ears and pulled them off slowly before placing them on a random table, searching the room to make sure Lady Lilola wasn't somewhere watching me. I would've continued to strip myself of diamonds, but I looked back to see Evanen had disappeared. My heart nearly stopped. I looked about desperately, expecting him to be in sight, just blending in for some reason. But now everybody was starting to look bigger, and their sharp movements were confusing me so that I couldn't actually focus on anyone in the room. My eyes moved over them to see a sign lettered "Happy Birthday, Evanen Draele" in black above the window I had broken through in the living room.

I continued to slide past everyone, searching for Evanen or anyone. I spotted Katha and immediately turned back to go elsewhere, but somebody was blocking my path. I looked from the dark shoes to the suit, trailing my eyes -- with an expectation of being caught doing something wrong -- to the face of a man I hadn't met before. His eyes were grey, kind of like dads, but they were sharper. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and flowed in its silverness down his back at great length. Personally, I found it extremely unattractive, and this could possibly be the first vampire that I could seriously enjoy _not_ looking at. Even though his face and skin still had no flaws seen by my eyes, it wasn't suitable for my taste.

"What's a girl like you doing here," he asked in a deep voice that creeped me out -- it could be just my prejudice from first impressions, though. And he grabbed my hand, leaning over to kiss the back of it. I made a face. It's kind of how I imagined Armand from Anne Rice's book to look as an old guy. I never liked Armand. Especially since Antonio Banderas played as him. No, not my type of vampire.

"I live here," I responded at last, pulling my hand away slowly to make sure he would indeed give it back. Instead, he grabbed my other hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist as though to dance with him. I started to pull away.

"Dance with me," he ordered into my ear, and I felt dread and disgust when I was obliged to. He suddenly lowered his head to my neck, breathing in my scent. "Are you lost, love?" I could've gagged.

"Actually, Sir Trenton, she's with me," I heard a familiar voice say darkly. I felt the order in my head drop away, and "Sir" Trenton pulled me around to face Mikel. My face instantly brightened at the sight of him, but he continued to glare at Trenton. The term 'Sir' disgusts me, so I decided to just leave it off. "Thanks for attending to her. I'd only lost her for a moment there." And he held out his hand. I gladly reached out and grabbed it, allowing the cool of his skin to surround my hand.

Trenton could've said something like "Next time, Love" or something, but I couldn't have been less attentive if I were dead. I followed Mikel back towards a direction in the house I hadn't ventured to before, and he eventually led me out two glass, sliding doors that led to a wooden porch with it's own mini fountain and flowers surrounding it. There were less people out here. Mikel turned around, looking concerned.

"He didn't hurt you, did he," Mikel asked slowly. He looked tired. He didn't act it, but he looked a bit more tired than he usually did. Which is weird because vampires don't look tired. Either way, it was barely there, so it could've been the lighting.

"No," I said slowly, "It's just..." I hesitated.

"What?" Mikel looked worried. I ducked my head, blushing a bit.

"I didn't know there were vampires who weren't.. you know.. hot," I responded. Mikel's concern turned to relief at these words, and he looked me up and down. Then he broke into a smile. "What?"

"Nothing," Mikel said, "It's just.. the one time you're suppose to be really dressed up, and you go to the party barefooted."

I smirked. "Well, you'd understand if you'd seen those stilts of heels. They expected a miracle, and didn't get one."

Mikel held out his hand, "Would you like to dance?" I nodded, taking his cold hand once again. He spun me around slowly, and gripped his other arm about my waist. It was more comfortable than having "Sire Trentoness" pull me around like a prize. I suddenly felt better; more happy than I had been since I'd come here. Maybe more happy than ever, and it was making me warm enough to not even notice Mikel's cold pull at my warmth. "You dance beautifully."

I laughed, "And you do, too. I mean, I may be stepping on your toes, but at least it's not the other way around." There was silence as he seemed to look off in the distance over my head. I bit my lip, and slowly lowered my head against his chest. "I wrote something in that journal once," I suddenly said, not sure why I'd mention this, but I did. "It was after a weekend at being at my friend's house... and I had said... it was amazing how someone's presence could be so welcoming as to never want to be missing. How life can become so dull once that presence is missing.. and death can seem so... _there_, like a shadow over you because it's like you know that there's a chance you could never see that person again. And it such a horrible feeling; the loneliness, the quiet without them, and the whisper of their words that were no longer in the air. Then I feel like I wished I'd never been in their presence to feel this way. Until they're back. Then I forget it all, forget to even wish them to not go away, leaving myself open to feel the pain when they leave once again." I stopped, and automatically regretted saying that. What if he thought it was just childish that I'd tell him that? Or what if he chose to ignore it... or thought it was meant for someone else? Why did I even say that?

"You write beautifully, as well," he suddenly responded, no longer looking off in the distance. "Just as I expected you would, of course." And he smiled, shining with such beauty that I couldn't help but feel relieved. I smiled back. He spun me around again, then gripped both arms around me and dipped me back. In complete trust, I tilted back my head with a smile, breathing in the suddenly sharper air around me. It smelled beautiful out here. It looked beautiful.. sounded beautiful. And then I was pulled back up again to look at the silver film over Mikel's caramel brown eyes. He looked a bit stunned.

"Wha-," I started to ask, and I was interupted when he pressed his cool lips against mine. At first, _I_ was stunned. And then I started kissing back. I forgot about breathing, about being seen, or even about being kidnapped at all. I didn't care anymore. I reached up to place my hands on Mikel's jaw, and just when I thought I would die by suffocation, he pulled away. I gasped in air, and he grabbed my wrist to pull me away from the porch, around the house, and out of sight of the party within.

Then he turned to me. "I don't know why this is happening," he said, "Or how long it's been happening, but I can't stop thinking about you. Sometimes, I listen to you talking to Evanen or... or humming when you were bored or laughing at some little thing... and your laugh, it just.." I was nodding as though in understanding, but my head was buzzing in such a way that I couldn't understand anything at the moment. And he locked his lips over mine again, pressing me against the wall. Then he pulled away again relunctantly, as though tearing off his own skin.

"And I knew... I knew when I would lay in my room, listening to your slow breathing as you slept," He hesitated, "I knew that I'd fallen in love with you." I felt suddenly scared. Out of all the feelings that was going through me at the moment, fear was the one that had dominated. Not because he was a vampire or anything. In fact, I had no idea. Maybe it was because I hadn't actually _heard_ anyone tell me such a thing... and be sincere at that. And maybe it was also the fact that Evanen would not allow this, and I knew it. But the one thing that most likely scared me the most was the fact that I believed myself to be in love with him as well.


	19. Chapter 19: Agreements

**Chapter Nineteen**

_Agreements_

It was extremely hard to sleep that night. Not only because I couldn't stop thinking about Mikel's smile or his kisses -- which brought a blush to my cheeks each time I thought about them -- but because of Mikel himself. It seemed as though he couldn't go to sleep, either. And as I laid next to Evanen, who was once again dead to the world in his human-like sleep, images kept appearing in my mind's eye that weren't conjured by myself.

A particular image of an orange marigold flower (which now Mikel knew to be my favorite flower) flew into my mind, followed by an image of a field of orange marigolds. I smiled, amused at the continuance of these mental images and Mikel's voice sometimes whispering such sweet things that made my stomach boil. At some point, an image of my own reddish copper hair was sharp in my mind, and it blended into the same-colored vision of oak leaves in autumn. I wondered where the tree was located from his mind, and suddenly I knew it was from Duncombe Park, Helmsley, Yorkshire, England... I got the point.

And so I fell into a sleep at last, but not without knowing Mikel would be in my dreams. I was okay with that.

It was hard to hide the fact that when I looked around a corner of a room expectantly, I was looking for Mikel. Evanen hovered behind me protectively everywhere I went, and when he looked around suspiciously, I wondered if he was looking for the same person but for different reasons. Mikel seemed to appear out of nowhere, almost casually, and I had to avert my eyes each time so that Evanen wouldn't take too much notice to his presence. And then it would be hard to keep my face straight when Mikel would glide the back of his hand against the side of mine as he walked by.

Then would come a day.. night when Evanen would be off doing something, and as I walked along down a hall, Mikel would suddenly snatch my hand and pull me out to the garden. Like today.. or night. Technically it's night, but I've adapted to being awake during the dark hours and asleep during the day. Mikel had ahold of my wrist lightly, leading me to the garden where nobody would seem suspicious to find me wandering alone at. Automatically, I moved towards the pond, always intrigued by the little hydrogens and oxygens combined to make water. When I sat down on the ground next to the pond, Mikel followed suit, sitting down as well. I'm sure when you learn the concept of the possibility of living forever, decency where you situate yourself no longer concerns you anymore. Or you could be like me and learn to accept the possibility of dying too soon so that the concept of where you sit down no longer concerns you as well. Whichever one fits for the occasion.

After messing with the surface of the pond water, I smiled at Mikel, once again noticing the silver film in over his eyes. It was slightly creepy.. like sunglasses on strangers, where you can never tell a trace of what they're thinking because they're true eyes are being blocked by some force. But I could handle it.

"Do that thing again," I said slowly, moving closer to him.

"Which thing," he asked, seeing as I liked to suggest doing abnormal things like crushing rocks to dust or making a comment in my mind. It was interesting the things vampires could do. Once I tried to get him to show me his fangs, but it was a futile attempt. That was uncomfortable to him.

This time, my suggestion was, "The vampire language thing." And I smiled in anticipation.

"It's not another language," Mikel restated something I've heard before, but ignored.

"I know, it's just talking real fast, but go on and do it," I said.

"And say what," He asked. I shrugged, and waited for him so say something. I really didn't care, it wasn't as if I was ever going to understand it.. or much less hear it. Sure enough, when his lips parted, a wisp of air was heard before it was gone. And I had been concentrating so hard this time to hear a word, but nothing of recognition came out. I would've been frustrated, but I reassured myself in deciding it was indeed a vampire language.

"How do you understand what it is each one of you say," I asked curiously.

"Well, it isn't as fast to me as it is to you. In fact, it's nearly effortless to understand what each other is saying.. it's just hard at first to keep track of what every normal person is saying. They go so slow, and we have to go slow as well," he said, "It's quite annoying, actually, but you've got to live with it." It brought back my thought about how Evanen had to use my own speed to keep track of his speed... of how boring it must be to have to be slow in order to stay in tuned with this word.

"So what if you were to just start going your own speed," I suggested. I got an image of someone running around superspeed, snatching things up when they needed. I wonder if they'd tire out eventually.

"It'd be pointless. At some point, you'd have to slow down because you wouldn't exactly be with the world... it'd be like an explosion, I guess. Because normally, to get something out of something, you'd have to go through a process, but if you just skipped the process, it'd lead to an explosion. And in an explosion, you don't exactly get anything from it... just distaster, chaos, and death," he smiled, amused by his own word choice.

"I guess it's good you all don't go off into your own orbit," I stated, "Then I would never understand what's going on here, and everything would be just a wisp of air." I laid back on the ground, looking up at the sky. Mikel laid down next to me, looking at me instead. I turned to glance at him when he traced his fingertips over my own hand lovingly. "What'd you say that one time on the couch, just before Katha showed up in all her fury and hissness?"

Mikel smiled at the sudden insight of memorization. Maybe he'd hoped I had forgot about it, but I was curious as to why Katha had been so enraged by what he'd said. Her words were so furious. 'You think so? Who would've thought?' I wondered what exactly he had thought. And I looked at him expectantly. "Well," Mikel said slowly, "I remember that... didn't know that Katha was there to hear it so it's no wonder why she got mad."

"What'd you say," I asked again.

"I said," Mikel moved closer to me in amusement, "I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world, Hailence Truit. Your brown eyes are beautiful. Your bronze hair is beautiful. Your skin is beautiful. Every freckle on your face is beautiful. Your lips are beautiful. Your long eyelashes are beautiful. Your tears are beautiful. Your smile is beautiful. Your frown is beautiful. Your breath is beautiful. Your voice is beautiful. Your laughter is beautiful. You're beautiful in every way, and I think it's cruel you're here. I think you should leave, no matter what it takes, because something so beautiful shouldn't suffer." And he watched for my reaction. I continued to look at him, thinking over those words.

"I'll tell you what I think," I said at last, "I think that after that speech, the word 'beautiful' no longer sounds like a word." And I smiled as he moved close enough to press his cool forhead against my own. I sometimes could forget what he looked like with that old guilty expression on his face, seeing as he no longer seemed to be feeling guilty about being around me. I looked into his eyes, and I could almost forget he was a vampire. And suddenly I was guilty instead. The thought of the reason behind his being able to be around me caused me to look away suddenly.

"What's wrong," Mikel asked, noticing the guilt automatically. He would be one to spot guilt a mile away.

"Nothing," I muttered, "I just.. You're not mad at me for making you feed on humans now so you can handle being around me?" I looked at him to make sure he couldn't lie to my face. "I thought that the last thing you liked to do was hurt people.."

Mikel smiled, "I'm not mad at you about that... I... well, you wouldn't understand it, but if I was to be mad at anyone, it definitely wouldn't be you." And he suddenly glared in the direction of the house. I took that as a glare meant for Katha. "Evanen's back." Or it could be a glare meant for Evanen as well, whatever.

Mikel frowned, obviously disappointed, but then he pressed his lips over mine before disappearing as always. Evanen appeared out of the darkness, moving his face into my view by stepping just above me. He looked down at me in obvious displeasure; something was eating him. I got up without a noise to follow him back to the house.

As the days/nights passed, I continued to sneak around in order to find some time to be with Mikel alone, but it was getting hard because as I continued into my inner peace, Evanen turned to inner turmoil at my quiet when it came to _him_. No longer was I asking him my curious questions towards vampirism, nor was I moving into my depression and in need of some sort of comfort by him. No longer was I waking him up at night in my annoying habit of being disturbed in some way. Ultimately, no longer was I agitated into a state of bothering Evanen for a sense in knowing I was alive myself.. and though it would seem my past acts of agitating Evanen would be tiresome or annoying, it turned out that Evanen thrived on those moments when I couldn't seem to be pleased into finding my own way towards amusement. Now that I had Mikel to think about... to hear his voice in my head every once in a while, and to be pulled out of the monotony of my slaved life into his arms, it seemed as though Evanen served as nothing but a guard against ultimate freedom with Mikel. Or that could be known as an enemy. And who wants to affiliate with the enemy everyday?

Not me. Exactly.

So, as I laid on the bed after another time of being with Mikel... this time we were talking in the living room without the presence of others while they all were hunting... Evanen appeared next to me on the bed. He was abnormally close, but I'd gotten used to his habit of wanting to be either my outer layer of skin.. or to be me himself. I turned to look at him, nose-to-nose, with a small smile. I hadn't talked to him in a long time. If I wanted to, I could just forget what his voice sounded like. Even though he tended to nag to me often.. but that didn't count when you weren't listening.

The smile seemed to be enough because Evanen looked relieved as he smiled as well. "It's been awhile since I've heard from you." And he placed his hand over my cheek as though he were affectionate of me. I ignored it.

"Maybe I don't have much to say," I stated, and I started to touch the strong texture of his face as well, always interested in how different he was from Mikel and me. It was weird how his outer skin seemed to hold some warmth, but then it was cancelled out by the sudden vampiric layers of skin underneath. Yet it was stone through and through, unlike the softer surface of Mikel's skin. I wondered what his blood looked like. It'd be cool if everyone had different blood color based on what type of person they were. I hoped mine would be orange. But only because it was my favorite color. I suspected Mikel's to be a soft pink... and then Evanen's would be a peircing blue, like his eyes.

Suddenly, Evanen moved his hand away from my face, gripping my own hand on his face, and he moved it to across his face. Then, without warning, he moved my hand to his mouth and bit down on my finger. With a sudden fear, I tried to jerk my hand back, but he kept a good hold on my hand. I started calming down when he didn't move to drain me dry, but instead just looked at the prick of blood on my fingertip that he had caused almost curiously. He suddenly let go of my hand almost relunctantly, and moved his gaze to my face.

"What would you say if I were to offer to change you into me right now," Evanen asked, and I looked at him suspiciously. I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not, and I was afraid to even think about it. "You could live forever, and all those questions about us, you could figure it out yourself. And if ever you change your mind about living the life, you could just throw yourself into the sun." And he paused. I was speechless.

"Right now," I asked uncertainly. He nodded, and I frowned. Then I turned away to look at the wall. Was this some sort of trick? I suspected it to be a trick. But then a weird thought flew into my head. If I were changed, I could escape from here. Even with Mikel. In fact, I could be with Mikel forever, and he wouldn't have to worry about accidently killing me... but this is vampirism here. Something that seems so seductive and sweet, yet may end up being the worse mistake to make in life. That's usually how it is.

Suddenly, Evanen moved closer to me, gripping my waist tightly before moving me closer to him. My heart started pounding in my chest with confusion, not sure what to say. "It'd be quick, and it'd solve so many different problems," Evanen said slowly. And he moved my hair away from my neck. Then he bent down, and I could feel his breath just above my skin. I could remember the pain of his fangs stabbing into my skin, and I tensed in anticipation. He rubbed his cheek against mine and kissed my neck sweetly before moving back beside me with a smile on his face.

"Nah," He said, "I think not... at least not now." And I turned to look at him, smiling back in relief. "I don't want you to leave this room anymore," he suddenly said. The smile fell from my face in half a second. Just the thought of being trapped in one room left an inner feeling of doom and dispair... along with rage.

"What do you mean," I asked, trying to keep myself from seething.

"I mean that I don't believe it's safe for you to leave this room anymore," Evanen stated, now himself no longer smiling. I felt like doing something, such as sitting up... walking around.. throwing things... punching Evanen. But I just continued to look at Evanen's serious face before turning to look up at the ceiling again. "Is that an agreement?"

I hesitated, and thought about being stuck in the room again. Just in one room. Forever. And without warning, tears burned into my eyes, and I lifted my hands to my eyes in a sob. I know, I'm a crybaby. But I felt Evanen's sudden concern and regret as he gripped my wrists gently.

"I don't want to be stuck in here all day everyday forever," I whined, rolling over to bury my face in the pillow. I felt like a two year old, but one does lose their age when presented with a problem like this. And it seemed to be working, because Evanen was biting back on his words.

Then he said, "I don't mean for you to be in here all the time. I mean when I'm not with you, I want you to be in here. And when I'm here, you can just call on me, and then you can leave here. I'll even take you to the garden all the time." I quieted my sobs to sniffling as I thought about this. How was I suppose to be able to be with Mikel anytime? But then again, that was better than being stuck in here all the time. Then I'd never even _see_ Mikel.

"Okay," I said bitterly. I didn't want him to think I was up to anything, anyways. Plus, I could always just sneak... and be extra careful this time. So, I agreed to stay in the room unless Evanen was around to be my escort. It was a painful agreement, but one none-the-less.

~...~

I sat. It was a major feat to sit in one place for extended amounts of time, not counting the times I shifted positions in order to satisfy a pressurized pain of uncirculated oxygen. I wondered how it would be like to stay completely still so long that you gain pressure ulcers. Stage one must be bad enough, but I wondered if I could reach stage two... or even stage three. Probably not. It does hurt, after all.

And so, I sat. I was at the corner of the bed, leaning against the bed post. I was thinking; back into my placid state of deep thinking. Except this time, I had my eyes closed, and I was trying to draw the image of everyone I could imagine into my mind's eye. If I didn't do this often, I would forget Kyler's face indefinitely, but with the others, I may see them again. If not, I liked to see what I could recall on their image.

I could start with dad. Imagine his face of wrinkles, freckles, and old grey eyes that seemed to be getting more watery lately. From what I could remember, at least. Plus, his greying hair, which was starting to thin into apolcia (baldness). He was getting old... but it happens to everyone. Mostly. Unless you were a vampire. Sometimes I would imagine dad dying, and it would depress me so much I had to stop. But now I could do it without hurting as much.. It was as though he were already dead. But I used to imagine seeing his corpse within a coffin. I always assumed I would die before everybody I knew died, though. It seemed likely that I would forget about insulin or _something_.

Then I could imagine Kyler's face sharply, seeing as from the beginning, I was reminding myself of every aspect of her I could remember. I believe losing her image now would cause complete suicidal thoughts within myself. I could see her long, black hair with spikey ends. And her green eyes that seemed scary when she glared at anyone. She was smiling in my image. I always assumed she'd live forever. I never assumed I'd live forever. I didn't think that'd be possible.

Sometimes I couldn't sleep because I thought I would die before I woke up. They say it's because I have a fear of losing control, but it didn't happen too often. And when it did, it took forever to go to sleep. Sometimes I had to turn on some music or something, so that when I was falling asleep, I could know I wasn't dying.

I always assumed I would die some point soon. So becoming a vampire would be against any sort of plans I had made.

I missed being home. Who wouldn't miss being home? Well, besides those who were abused and ultimately had a dissatisfactory life... I miss walking around my neighborhood with Kyler or anybody. I miss hanging out by the bridge or going to concerts with my friends. I miss _school_. I miss the homework, the annoying teachers... _Ms. Genny_..., the gabbing during lunch, the daily checkup with the nurse, the boring lessons, and basically anything to do with being more free than I was now.


	20. Chapter 20: A Small Trip

**Chapter Twenty**

_A Small Trip_

I believed I had finally figured out the whole schedule to this vampire thing. Or rather more the Evanen thing, seeing as the other vampires had no actual schedule besides not going outside in daylight. See, it seems as though there's more daylight hours than darkness, so it wasn't as though we slept all day and was awake for the rest of the night on strict principles. It seemed as though we leaked into each one no matter what. See, the schedule was that we'd go to sleep some time after daylight broke in the morning.. a good couple of hours, and then we didn't like to wake up until it was good and dark rather than the moment daylight disappeared. So waking up the moment darkness fell was like waking up at the break of dawn in human's view. Totally not fun except to those few lovely "morning birds". And going to sleep the moment daylight appeared was like going to sleep the moment it got dark... around 7 or 8pm... or whenever it is that darkness takes over. Either way, when I was on human schedule, I didn't like to go to sleep until at least midnight, and I preferred to stay asleep until at least eleven in the morning... ten was the minimum, and school was Hell.

So, we were basically up at say 10 at night, until around 11 in the morning. This meant that the outside time for the vampires was a good eight or nine hours, depending on how punctual they were. And if all else failed, you could get up early to go hunting better, or if you wanted to go outside more. But by saying 'waking up', I refer more to Evanen, because I believed that the other vampires didn't sleep much. In fact, sleeping seemed to be a very human thing to do, and for some reason, Evanen -- those most unhuman of them all -- was the one who did it most. As for myself, sometimes you could find me clinging to the window like a leech, staring at the nearest location of the sun rays during those hours of daylight in which we were awake in. The best I could do was watch plants soak up that sunlight in absence of myself. Luckily I was old enough to where no complete damage could be done from the lack of sun. I couldn't end up like those twin in V.C. Andrew's book, which became freaks with growth defects because of their years without sunlight. Still, I was starting to get tired of the coldness of this house... I wished I could be a plant.. a tree out there reaching up to those rays of light and warmth. Stretching with those leaves that will eventually have to shed away to be renewed.

"What's it feel like," I suddenly heard from beside me as I was sitting next to a window, staring absently at the areas of light where I longed to be at the moment. I turned my head to see Evanen looking at the same area, but with a look of minor physical irritation. I wondered if the lights being reflected were bothering his eyes. It seems it would be possible to happen to vampires. Especially one who'd never been in such light before.

"Depends, what's what feel like," I asked cooly. "Not being able to breathe without someone on your shoulder? Not being able to laugh without someone asking what's funny? Not being able to enjoy a view of something you want without someone bugging you with questions, questions, and more _questions_?" I very much didn't enjoy having a babysitter on me all the time.

Normally, you'd figure he would've gotten the clue, but instead he said, "No. What's the sun feel like... to humans?" Of course. I rolled my eyes, and moved them back to the outside, sunlit world. I assumed he meant before I had been bitten, and the joys that came with 'Spring Break' and 'Summer' were distroyed by current situations of partial-albinism and minor irritations due to Ultraviolet Rays.

"I don't know," I said at last, "I used to take it for granted, so I never really took notice to it. But... I guess, when you're cold, the sun feels warm and comforting. And then there's time when the sun can stop being so gentle and become evil, glaring at you until you want nothing else in the world except the moon. Otherwise, the sun's just there... this great light that makes you wake up and feel like doing something, even when you don't want to do something. And you never really notice until it's dark again, and you're not tired anymore... and you want it to come back so you can feel happier.. and safer. Like during storms, which don't seem as bad when you can see it. That's what the sun does, it let's you see the dangers so that it doesn't seem so dangerous anymore. I don't know."

I didn't hear anything from Evanen for awhile, and I turned to look at him. He was looking at me oddly, and I didn't think I liked it too much. "Do you want to go outside," he asked, and the first thing that came to mind was the pet dog again. I'm suppose to get all excited, run in circles, and bark until he's satisfied in the answer and opens the door to me. Instead, I just stared at him as though there was a catch. "I'll let you out if you don't run away. If you do, I'd just have to wait until dark comes, and then I'd hunt you down and make you watch everyone you ever known and loved die." He looked completely sincere in this threat.

"I won't run," I said as though insulted. "And don't threaten me." I pointed my finger at him in a scolding manner, but only to lighten the mood. I knew that I had no authority in that matter, but it was better to pretend than to frighten myself at the thought of my dad dying before my eyes. I almost had half a mind to remind him how he'd already killed Kyler before my eyes, but I decided not to push it.

"Come on, then," Evanen ordered, and he moved towards the direction of the sliding doors, where Mikel had kissed me during the party for the first time. I felt nervous just thinking about it, as though Evanen would sense it, and freak out. But he didn't seem to sense anything. Instead, he just opened the door, pointing at the wooden porch which was half in the dark and half in the sun. I hesitated before stepping forward.

The first thing that came in stepping into the light was automatic irritation and slight, pricking pain in my eyes. But as I looked at the light on my extremely pale skin, the pain didn't seem as bad and I could enjoy the sudden warmth that the light provided. I raised my head up to the sky, closing my eyes to see the red behind my eyelids as the sun blanketed me gently. I smiled, remembering how I used to believe the sun to be the eye of God at some point. I used to make it a point to never look at it, for it had to be God. Light always was good. And if you looked directly at it, it could hurt you. So I was found sometimes staring at it behind dark, yet thin clouds on those few days when the sun no longer seemed a glaring flame ball, but just a bright circle. And now I could accept the sun as being God's eye, seeing as it brought such comfort and warmth to me at the time. Plus, it made sense... vampires couldn't go into sunlight.

I suddenly bent down my head to look over towards Evanen, remembering his questioning as to why he wouldn't have a soul himself. If he hadn't killed anyone in his life, he still wouldn't be able to go into the sun. Banish from birth. It seemed unfair in a way. And I no longer wanted to be in the sunlight.

~...~

_Hailence_. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I was jolted awake from the sudden hiss in my mind. I could kill Mikel sometimes. I pushed myself up slowly, turning my head in Evanen's direction. He was -- once again -- dead to the world. I laid back down, waiting for another reason as to why I had been awoken so suddenly.

_Leave the room_. And I had a sudden image of walking outside the bedroom to see Mikel waiting by the door with a finger over his lips, a smirk on his face. I slowly smiled, and moved to look in Evanen's direction again. Assured in his dead sleep, I moved myself slowly out of the bed. Once I got out, I paused, but he was still out. I slipped on my shoes quietly, and slouched on light feet towards the door. I pressed the palm of my hand on the flat of the door and used the other hand to turn to knob. When I moved to open the door, it was quietly and nearly painful in how quiet I tried to be. But it seemed as though there was no point, for Evanen didn't budge in his sleep.

I shut the door, and turned to move in the direction I'd seen Mikel in my image. Before I moved a step, Mikel popped in front of me triumphantly, and I nearly squeaked in startlement. "Sneaking out with a vampire isn't a good idea," Mikel said darkly, in a low, amused voice. He gripped me by the waist and lightly pressed me against the wall. "You might get hurt." And he smiled evily.

I smiled back, not convinced by his bad boy act. "I'll have to take that chance," I whispered, and a muffled laugh came when he nipped at my neck threatingly. "Still not scared." His eyes gleamed, and he was pressing his lips over mine demandingly. I gave in automatically, and then he pulled away, holding his forehead against mine lovingly.

"Good," he said, "How do you feel about little, inconspicuous trips?" I hesitated.

"What do you mean by trip?"

Mikel smiled sheepishly, and said, "I mean outside this property, but we're on a tight schedule. It's 8:20pm and that means we've got a max of an hour and a half before Evanen will start waking up. I figured we should keep it within an hour."

I still was confused, "A trip where?"

"Well, I figured you might want to go some place, for memory sake," he stated, and I was suddenly reminded of Evanen's habit of trying to give me things of my past that merely hurt me more. I frowned, not sure if I'd like this idea of a trip. Mikel noticed, and he hesitated. "Look, I remember that when I was turned, the only thing I ever wanted was to see my parents one last time, or walk along a path in the woods that I liked to walk through as a human. Only I was always afraid that I might not be able to contain myself, and I might kill someone... maybe even someone I know. I just don't want you to be without your last goodbyes.. in case this is indeed your last goodbyes. Though.. actually, I'm hoping to try to keep this from being the end of your human life, but you can never be sure, right?" And he smiled so assuringly that I couldn't even remember why such reasoning would be equal to Evanen's.

"Okay," I agreed, smiling in return. "I've got an idea where I want to go first." And with that, Mikel swiped me off my feet, making me bite down on my tongue in order to contain myself from giggling and bringing attention to myself. With such quiet movement that I would've never been able to do myself, we escaped from the house, went a distance, and then he placed me down. I looked around slowly. "So what? Are you going to run me there or something?"

Mikel chuckled, "I believe I'll stick to driving. I just had to get further away with the car so that it wouldn't bring attention to us. Just hold on right here for a moment." And he was gone. I didn't have to wait long until he pulled up a car next to me. It felt weird to be riding in a car again after what seemed like forever of being stuck in one place. I kept my face glued to the window, watching the dark trees fly by as we sped towards what I assumed was Merit Cemetary.

It didn't seem to take long before Mikel pulled over on the side of the road. I looked over at him, and he said, "It's closed, but I'll get you over it." I didn't understand why people would close a cemetary. It's not like it's some sort of store or something.. it's a land of dead people. You shouldn't have visitation hours for your dead loved ones. But then again.. it's suppose to keep people from robbing graves and stuff. Still, it's called night watch. Though that must be creepy to some extent... what am I talking about? I have a vampire guy with me.

I followed Mikel as he moved around the sidewalk of the cemetary gates, and he stopped at a section where it seemed the gate was shorter than the rest. Then he gestured for me to come closer. I hesitated. "What are you going to do? Throw me over," I asked uncertainly. He smiled.

"Just come here," he said, and I moved closer to him. He positioned himself behind me, and gripped me by the waist. Then he lifted me up to the top of the gate as though I were a feather. I grabbed ahold of the top of it, and once I had myself positioned to hop to the other side, he let go. I landed smoothly. As I straighted out my clothes, I turned to find Mikel already looking down the tombstones. I moved to join him.

"Have you ever meant to lightly leap over something, and jumped too far," I asked curiously.

He glanced at me before continuing on the search. "At the beginning it's natural that happens, when you don't know your own strength. Everything seems easier, and it's hard to get used to not having to try at things anymore." I couldn't see any of the letters on the tombstones in the darkness, so I had to depend on him to find her.

"Have you ever tried to see how far up you can jump," I inquired.

"Nope," he said, "It creeps me out."

"Why? Because you might hit the outer orbit and fly off into space," I asked... that would scare me.

"I guess I prefer to pretend to be as normal as possible, and magnificant ammount of height isn't too normal," Mikel responded.

"What if you jumped with all your might, and delivered a kick against the Earth so hard that it knocked it out of orbit," I said absently, visualizing the world spinning off into utter death. "That'd be cool." And I smiled at Mikel's disturbed look at what I found awesome. He did seem to have a huge problem with his vampirism. Though I find it a bit scary, it was interesting.

"Here it is," Mikel said at last, stopping in front of a tombstone. I felt a sudden chill, knowing that Kyler was just under us, decomposing in a box to be distributed back into the Earth. For a moment, I felt an urge to run away, remembering how the bones of her neck seemed out of place as she laid slumped against the wall. Then I hesitated, and fell to my knees to look closer at the tombstone. Indeed, it had the name 'Kylee "Kyler" Madison'. Under the name was her lifespan, lasting a mere 17 years, and a small phrase that stated "Let me be empty and weightless and maybe I'll find some peace tonight". It sounded a bit depressing to me, but it did come from Sarah Mclachlan's 'Angel'.

There were flowers surrounding the tombstone, along with a picture of her and her friends in one batch of flowers. I picked it up to see myself smiling pleasantly under her arm, happy among the mass of the cafeteria friends. For a moment, I just looked at it, and then I pocketed it. Though that might be considered as stealing, I didn't want to risk forgetting what Kyler looked like. I looked around to see Mikel off in the distance, looking at separate tombstones randomly. I glanced back at Kyler's grave, and hesitated. What do you say to a dead person? It's not like they're going to answer.

So, being original as I'm sure Kyler would appreciate, I bent down a bit and whispered, "Hey, Kyler, I hope you find God hot... or if you're in Hell, I hope you have fun kicking Hitler's ass." And I smirked before standing up. "All right, let's go," I said to Mikel. He was suddenly walking past me, so I followed him, allowed him to help me over the gate, and was once again looking out the window as we pulled not too far away from my trailor house. I almost had an urge to just ditch all this vampire mess, stomp into the house, and go to sleep properly. Instead, I led Mikel to my window, he opened it quietly, and helped me into my room.

My room was the same as it had been originally, as though I had only left a couple of hours ago. The first thing I grabbed was a picture of dad from the tac board above my dresser. Then I sat down on my bed, paused, and spread out, stretching before burying my head into my pillow. The familiar scent was so comforting, and I would've gone asleep right then if Mikel didn't suddenly whisper gently, "We have to go." I got up reluctantly, and soon we were on our way back to the house of slavery, boredom... and Mikel. I guess it could be worse.

I wonder if I was presented with the chance to go back home or stay with Mikel, which one I would choose. The question of decision hurt my head too much to think about, and I had to drop it. The only decision I'd come up with would be to go home, and bring Mikel with me as a sort of souvenir. Yes, that'd be funner.

Mikel parked the car a little ways from the house, out of way and in the woods. Then he once again picked me off my feet and in moments, we were at the door of the building. "Be quiet when you go back in," Mikel said, and he paused, "I think he's still asleep, but he might wake up if you're noisy enough. If all else fails, just say you went to the bathroom or something." Then he sniffed in the scent of my hair and muttered something about laying on my bed.. I didn't quite catch it.

He opened the door to the house, and we stepped in quietly. I thought we'd make it, but before I reached the stairs, someone was blocking my way. I gulped at the suspicion and distaste on Cecilian's face. "Where've you two been off to," Cecilian asked coldly, staring me down in disgust. I backed up a bit, but ran into Mikel, who gripped his hands on my shoulders.

"I don't think it's your business," Mikel said testily.

Cecilian looked from me to Mikel and back with a look of near apathy, yet there was some humor behind her eyes, as though this were some treat to her. "Well, if I'm not much mistaken, I'm sure it'd be Evanen's business. Maybe he might not care too much at the fact that pathetic Mikel has grown a bit too fond of _his_ human, but I'm sure that won't be the case. And what will Katha say?" And she turned to move towards Evanen.

Suddenly, Mikel pushed past me, and grabbed Cecilian before shoving her against the wall. I saw her start to struggle, but even though she was older than Mikel, he seemed to be stronger than her. "Listen, _Cecilian_," he snarled, "You're not going to say a word to Evanen, or I'll--"

She interupted in a dry voice, "I'm not going to tell anyone, little boy. You go ahead and do what you want. Turn her if you want.. yes, turn her. That'd be best, I believe. Then she'd be open to be yours, right? I think the human would be healthy for you... and if Evanen kills you in the process, all the more for it." And she smiled in her evil thoughts. Mikel didn't seem to trust this, but I could tell how sincere she was being. Then again, why wouldn't she be sincere? This is an opening for Evanen and "the human girl" to become less attached. Then I wouldn't get anything from Evanen in his stupid Rising, and I'd be out of the question. Plus, Evanen would kill the weakest one of their bunch, and maybe even me. It'd fit her view perfectly.

"Now let go of me," Cecilian snapped, "You stink of graves." And he weakened his grasp, allowing her to shove him away, straighten her clothes haughtily, and walk away slyly as though permanently up to something. Mikel hesitated before turning to look at me. I looked back at him as though affirming that that had indeed been close.

"Are you okay," Mikel asked, concerned.

I nodded, "Yeah." Then I started up the stairs. Before we got back to Evanen's/my room, Mikel grabbed my wrist to stop me. Then, without a word, he rubbed the back of his hand against my cheek. He bent his head down, resting it against mine slowly. Then he let go, turning to walk towards his room. A small smile appeared on my lips before I turned back into the room.

Evanen was still mostly dead to the world. It wasn't too hard to lay back down in the bed, and that amount of movement just had Evanen turn over to move closer to me. I made myself comfortable, resting on my stomach, and Evanen's arm crawled across my back. It took only an hour at the most before he started to stir. Then he moved closer to me, probably knowing I wasn't asleep either. I heard him breathe in my hair, and paused.

"You smell different," he suddenly stated slowly. I smirked, realizing what it was that Mikel must have said when he himself had smelled in my scent. I laid across my bed, so I basically had rubbed the scent of what I used to smell like, around everybody else, on my own, in school, and things of that sort.

"You're weird," I responded, without a trace of guilt to give myself away.


	21. Chapter 21: A Slave's Purpose

**Chapter Twenty-One**

_A Slave's Purpose_

It was set. When Evanen was not in his prime of death sleep, I wouldn't have a chance to so much as say hello to Mikel. If he hadn't had that ability to sleep, I'd never be able to see Mikel, but just this limited amount of time without him was hard enough. And if you asked me, I'd say my depression during Evanen's waking time pleased him to some extent. He had his slave back for himself... to suffer, but as long as I voiced my suffering with Evanen and not Mikel, he was happy.

I tried sneaking out of the room at some point without Evanen's supervision, but when Evanen left the room, he locked it behind him. Then he kept a close eye on Mikel so that _he_ wouldn't try to help me run off with him. So I had to call upon Evanen when I couldn't stand being stranded in one room for too long. Now, for example, I had called on him -- which is easy when you have the ultimate calling necklace around your neck -- and forced him (if you want to call it that) to allow me to stroll down to the living room. As it turned out, Mikel wasn't there. Lame. But better than being stuck in that room.

I laid across the couch, stretching my legs over Evanen's lap. In bitter thought, I asked, "How do you kill a vampire?"

Evanen didn't seem to have any concern that a silly, weak girl like me would succeed in killing him, much less attempt, so he didn't even hesitate before saying, "Sunlight mainly, but if you wanted to do it manually, you'd have to use solid silver to the heart or head... or if you want it plain messy, chop off their heads. If you want it slow, drain and starve them. Slowest way would be to feed them, and then starve them, no draining necessary." He smiled at my expression of distaste.

"Is solid silver hard to come by," I asked curiously.

Evanen raised a brow, "Not too hard. Got a good, silver dagger myself in one of my drawers upstairs." He paused, peering at me closely, "Just in case I need to use it; being around all these different vampires. To be more specific, it's the third one down on the left of the maple dresser." I scoffed. As if I'd have the guts to stab him in the heart while he slept. He'd probably stop me in a heart beat before doing God knows what in rage.

I bit my bottom lip, wondering if I should continue my questioning. Then I decided nothing too bad could come of it. "Have you ever killed a vampire," I inquired slowly. Evanen started tracing the skin of my lower leg thoughtfully. It was pretty warm today, so I was dressed loosely; capri, tanktop, and barefooted. Not that I had much to fear now that I was constantly guarded with Evanen's presense and otherwise isolated.

"I used to kill everything in sight," Evanen suddenly admitted, "That included humans, animals, and vampires. Except with vampires, I didn't know about any silver stabbings... I just drained them and ripped their heads off." I felt suddenly slightly sick. "I mean, that was before I started gaining sense and learned to cover my trails more. Then Drewdon found me and convinced me to stay with him... that he'd be able to protect me, and teach me control."

I hesitated. "So you would've been just a kid, then? When you were killing off everything, vampires included?"

He smiled, "Yes, and kids tend to want a lot more than they need."

"And you _drained_ vampires, too?"

"I told you before," Evanen stated, "I'm not some ordinary vampire. I've got a bunch of differences, and one of them is that vampires don't taste too bad to me. But normal vampires don't like other vampire's blood. It would be like a normal human's view on the taste of other human's blood. Except worse, seeing as some humans are weird enough to like blood. No vampire likes vampire blood." He paused for a moment. "But don't worry, human blood tastes better. It's like choosing between chicken and chocolate... except when some people find a day when they decide they want chicken instead of chocolate , the vampires here prefer me to stick to a strictly-desert diet."

I just looked at him blankly. And then I said, "That's just gross." Evanen laughed, and was about to respond when there was a knock on the door. He suddenly tensed and became utterly serious. I looked behind me towards the front door, curiously as to who it was in the middle of the night. Well, I mean, besides another vampire. As far as I knew, everyone who lived here was here, and otherwise, they never knocked for permission to enter their home. Not even I did that.

"Stay here," Evanen said to me moving my legs off his lap and heading to answer the door. I rolled over onto my stomach to watch his progress to the silenced knocking. He opened the door, and I held in a gasp of displeasure when I saw a familiar man... vampire standing at the door. Who could forget one of the few unattractive vampires I'd ever seen, with his long, gray hair and suit?

"Sir Trenton," Evanen greeted, and I could trace a bit of confusion as to why this man was here. I glanced behind him a younger girl around a couple of years older than me, but still quite young. She looked a bit bored, and flawed. So I assumed she wasn't a vampire. Still, I didn't know if I liked her based on first impression. She was wearing the shortest shorts ever known to women kind, and her shirt served only a purpose of basically covering her breasts, and barely at that. Her black hair was up in a ponytail, and her dark brown eyes peered around boredly. She was repulsive to me on sight, but she'd be beautiful if she wasn't so vulgar in her appearance.

"Mr. Draele.. Evanen, I presume," Trenton asked, and he glanced in my direction with pleasure before turning to Evanen, who nodded. "I'd like to have a serious word with you, please. Alone." Evanen moved his gaze in my direction, and then looked at the girl behind Trenton.

"Okay, follow me, then," Evanen said, moving towards the back rooms. He paused and looked at me again. "The girl can stay here with Hailence over there. You two stay put." And Evanen led Trenton out of sight towards some unknown room for a chat. The girl walked into the house dully, closing the door behind her, and moved over towards me. She would've sat on my legs if I hadn't sat up real quick, and suddenly I was cursed with her presence.

For a moment, it was awkward silence. Then the girl looked at me, moving her gaze up and down my body, and settled the silence with, "I'm Dylan, one of _Sir_ Trenton's slave girls. You must be the one and only Hailence, slave girl of Evanen's, who is causing such a fuss with all the vampire world."

I frowned, "Why?"

She smiled as though she was twenty years older than me... like a older sister would smile at a naive little sibling. It annoyed me, but I didn't let that show. "Why? Because you just happened to show up at the wrong time. Everyone had a plan for little Evanen since they found him, and no one thought he'd be distracted by some human girl. Too stupid to assume he'd want a lifemate of his own. Isn't it what every vampire wants at some point in life? Humans even?"

I scoffed, "Like I'd become Evanen's lifemate.. no way."

Dylan continued that all-knowing smirk, "Oh, I'm sure if he really wanted you, he'd convince you eventually. I mean, it's not hard to tell he is working to steal your heart already."

"Where do you get that notion from," I asked, confused. I couldn't recall Evanen giving me flowers or saying sweet, loving words to me. Unless... well, I mean, for a person who has no idea the concepts of human techniques... maybe he may find a dead friend's hair pin as flowers, and orders of complete slavery and devotion to his presence as loving words. No. Not possible.

"Let's put it this way," Dylan said, moving closer to me. What's with these people and lack of personal space. "Has he taken you?" I paused. Maybe I am a bit naive, because this question made no sense to me.

"What do you mean," I inquired.

She rolled her eyes, "Has he _taken_ you... you know... bumping around in the night.. a little one-on-one in the night, even if you didn't want it? Some major physical..." I didn't respond. "Sex. Has he practically been raping you at all times of the day?"

"Oooooh," I said, realizing how stupid I seemed just now. "Oh, no. No, he hasn't laid a finger on me."

"Not even to hit you around," Dylan asked, "Maybe taken bites out of you for some snack time?"

"No... well, he nicked my finger not too long ago, but that was nothing. And before he had taken me to claim as his, he did try to kill me a couple of times, but that was when I was food, not company," I admitted. "But how is that trying to steal my heart for eternal love?" Dylan leaned back, obviously assured in whatever notion it was in her head. I suddenly noticed a black, dog-like collar around her neck, which was surrounded by bite marks. In fact, a majority of her skin was covered with bite marks.

"Darling, being a slave isn't suppose to be just lazing around, it's suppose to be a time to be a human toy for the vampire to play with and feed on... to do whatever they feel like doing before being disposed of," Dylan said shortly, "And if that's not what Evanen wants with you, then he obviously wants something more..."

"And is being a slave also include having a collar, or am I missing that, too," I inquired in annoyance.

"Oh, the collar you do have, even if it is pretty," Dylan said, indicating to the necklace around my neck. I looked down, feeling sick suddenly by the thought of some necklace being replaced as a prettier version of some dog collar. I didn't like the thought of being a dog to some vampire. I felt like ripping it off suddenly.

"What are you doing here," I asked suddenly, no longer interested in this conversation.

"Oh, well," Dylan said with such humor, "Sir Trenton finds you immensely appealing, and seeing as everyone else in the vampire world would like nothing more than your removal, he's here to strike a deal with your vampire boyfriend. Sir Trenton's willing to give up over half of his slaves for you, but he's hoping Evanen will just take a couple, or just me."

I scoffed, and moved closer to my own side of the couch, waiting for the verdict. It's not like I suspected Evanen to give me up for some trampy slave, but just the thought of going home with "Sir" Trenton sickened me. To become some meat doll for fun. In fact, it struck fear in me. I may end up with all those bites on me, vulgarly dressed, and with a dog collar to boot. Maybe even become as cold as Dylan over there. No, I didn't like any of those thoughts. But Evanen wouldn't just hand me over, would he? Then again, what if Trenton offered money.. lots of it... or something better. What's better? I don't know. Maybe he'd offer something that only vampires find appealing. Some artifact or something. Would he give me up? Maybe he's not attached to me enough to just hand me over.

Their little chat seemed to be taking forever, and I was getting more nervous by the moment. I considered getting up and running. At some point, even Dylan got bored enough to pass out on her side of the couch. I jumped suddenly when a cool hand brushed against my cheek from behind me, expecting it to be Trenton about to tell me I'm going to a new home. My eyes flitted back quickly to see Mikel just behind me assuringly. He was looking in the direction that Evanen had headed off to talk to Trenton. I glanced over at Dylan to see she seemed to be safely secured in dreamland. I looked back over to Mikel, and he moved his eyes from the back rooms and smiled at me.

"Am I going to die," I asked sincerely, assuming his super hearing would warn me ahead of time.

"No," Mikel said quietly, "You're safe. Trenton thinks he can convince Evanen to give you up, but nothing he says will make Evanen feel a notion to hand you over. Plus, he even got his type wrong. Revealing girls aren't too desirable to him, and she's not even close to being one of those disturbed, emo kids."

I scoffed, "I'm not a disturbed, emo kid."

"You are on the inside," Mikel responded humorously. I smiled in response.

"I was looking for you," I said quietly, "But it's hard to find you when there's _someone_ tagging along like a little brother."

"I try to stay away from your sight when Evanen's around so he doesn't freak out on me," Mikel resonded, and he bent down to press his lips over mine sweetly before saying, "And I'd say it'd be more than a little brother type of tag-along." I peered at Mikel closely to see that he looked more tired than he had the night before last. There was a sudden click of a door opening in the back room, and when I looked back over to Mikel, he was gone as though I had merely dreamed of him being there. Then I nearly jumped when I looked over to find Dylan wide awake, peering at me as though I were her favorite candy she hadn't had in weeks. I wondered if she had been awake the whole time and faking it, but before I could try to decipher anything from her expression, Evanen appeared around the corner with Sir Trenton, who looked a bit let down.

"Thanks for the offer anyway," Evanen said with his teeth clenched.

"Yes, but I'm not finished yet. One day I'll figure out what you'd want more than her," Sir Trenton responded with ease, as though everything went as planned. Then he moved across the room towards me and with a flick of his hand, Dylan was standing in preparation to follow him everywhere. I figured that was it, but suddenly he was bent in front of me, gripping my hand lightly. He traced the back of it briefly, and I looked over at Evanen in order to reassure myself that Trenton wasn't going to kill me right there. Evanen didn't look happy that Trenton had ahold of any part of me, but he seemed relaxed in the order of my death. So I looked back to Trenton to wait for him to go away.

"What makes you so special, love," Trenton asked absently, locking his gaze to my eyes as though searching for something. It made me uncomfortable, but I held his gaze.

"I think it's my lack of charisma.. and my dull humor could be the thing topping it off," I responded without a smile.

Trenton's lips spread only a bit in a half-smile, and he said, "I'll be looking forward to the day when I have you for myself. Sleep deeply, my love." And he was up and leaving. Was that last bit a threat or was he really just hoping me for good dreams? I hate that 'love' bit. I'm not cupid, and I'm definitely not _his_ love. I looked at Dylan to see her smiling at me as though she knew a secret, and she waved lightly before heading out the door behind Trenton.

Suddenly, Evanen was beside me, grabbing my hand that Trenton had ahold of and looked at it as though he suspected Trenton had injected some poison or something into my bloodstream. Then he lightly grabbed the sides of my head to have me look up into his face seriously. "Did he say anything in your head? Got any order that you don't really want to follow and you have to? Or was there an order to tell you not to tell me," he asked suspiciously, and I smiled.

"Nope, nothing," I responded, pretty sure that there was any words of Trenton latching onto my thoughts and controlling my body. Still not assured, Evanen pressed his forehead against mine, and I closed my eyes as I felt him flitting through my mind for any presence. Instead of hands that I had felt the last time he did this, it seemed more like his eyes were with me. But it wasn't long until Evanen was assured that I was not being controlled, and he exited my mind, but didn't take his forehead from mine. Oh great, another moment where he's wishing he was my outer layer of skin.

Now I was a bit worried that he was planning on kissing me, which was not a very good image in my head, and in order to try to fend that thought from _his_ head, I kept my eyes closed and I sucked in my lips between my teeth, keeping them nice and shut and out of sight. I hoped that would work, and not too long later, Evanen pulled away from me and said, "I'll never let Trenton get ahold of you, Hailence, so don't trouble yourself with that thought, okay?" I nodded, opening my eyes to see him smirking at me. "So how'd you like that girl of his?"

I shrugged, "She was a real charmer. You should've kept her."

"Oh, it was tempting," Evanen replied sarcastically. I suddenly had a thought in my mind, and it was a question I was a bit afraid of asking Evanen in order to ease my thought. But then again, he doesn't seem to get mad about any questions I've been asking lately. I believe he'd been getting used to my curiousity, but this one I was afraid of asking because I was afraid of the answer. At the thought, I opened my mouth to ask it anyway, but then bit my lip uncertainly. Evanen noticed, and he asked, "What is it?"

I hesitated, knowing I would ask it, just trying to stall the time. I sat down on the couch, and Evanen followed suit next to me, waiting for my words. Then I built up the courage and said, "So girls like that... umm... I mean... I talked to her a bit, and I noticed some things about her... I, um... Like the, uh, bites all over her... and.. and she said some things... about slaves, you know... their purpose and..."

"I don't understand what you're asking," Evanen said with an expression of confusion while trying to figure out what my question is.

"What exactly is a normal purpose of a human slave," I asked, looking him dead in the eyes. He didn't look away, but just seemed to be watching my expression to see if it gave away anything myself. I kept to the apathetic face, though.

"The normal purpose of a slave is pleasure for its master," Evanen responded darkly, "Mostly it's blood... sex. Then sometimes there are sadistic vampires who like to use their slaves for experiments or torture. But the purpose of all slaves is to keep their master from boredom." He didn't seem guilty about any of those explainations, but then again, he never did.

I frowned a bit, then said darkly, "So if I'm a slave, why don't you tell me to refer to you as my master if that's the normal way?"

Evanen moved closer to me, probably feeling that bit of space between us as a whole ocean apart, and he smiled. "Because why would I want a normal slave if I'm not a normal vampire? It kind of cancels out all the fun in it all, right?" That or he's trying to get me to fall in love with him and starting out by satisfying his hunger wouldn't have been a good start. I sighed.

"So how many slaves have you had, or am I your first," I asked curiously.

He now hesitated for a split second, and I was sharp in narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously. Not because I was jealous or anything, but there was something in that sudden pause that made me know that he was going to say something he knew I wouldn't like. But he recovered quickly, which made me think he had thought of a way around that bit that wouldn't go well with me, and he said, "Only about 8, actually. You'd be my 9th." I tried to think how he'd figure any of that information to bother me.

"But I think you'd be his first slave in not actually being a normal slave," I suddenly heard Katha say from the entrance of the living room. "Maybe you should tell her what you did with the other eight slaves you had.. you know, the ones that you didn't suck up to like a sick puppy." She scoffed in disgust and I looked at Evanen to see him glaring at her in such rage that it scared me. Plus, I wondered if what Katha was indicating was true, but then why wouldn't it be if everyone seems to think that I'm special. What would make me special if he had been a lenient towards the other eight girls he had. Still, I didn't want to believe anything of that sort, and so I waited for Evanen to say he didn't do anything of the sort.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to discuss that," Evanen said shortly, on the verge of blowing up with rage.

"Oh, why not," Katha counter attacked, now gleeful in the anger she'd boiled from Evanen without actually breaking his rules. "Let's start with the first one, who he refused to feed while he ripped her to peices and she died of starvation, no longer even looking human. Then the second one, he liked to see how weird it looked when he broke her bones until bone marrow got into her blood stream and killed her. And the third, after he got bored of raping her, he cut her open alive in order to see what the insides of a human looked like. The fourth, he--" In a sudden movement, Evanen had leaped from the couch and had lunged at Katha, who was now gripping me around the neck dangerously with deep gashes on her neck. "Attack me one more time and I'll kill her. I don't care if you do the Rising or not, you asshole. And you can kill me all you want afterward, but it won't bring her back!"

Evanen moved slightly towards her, and she tightened her grip on my neck so that I gasped for air and gripped my hands around hers to fail at trying to get her off of me. At this sight, Evanen backed up a bit, and Katha laughed evilly. "Yes, he raped all of them continuously, fed off of them, played with them, did all types of sick things, and then he either killed them by doing those things or he got bored of them and killed them himself. That's what we all expected of him with you, but not this time. No, he hasn't even touched you wrong in all the time you've been here. But the moment you're not interesting to him, and he doesn't even like you anymore, he'll go crazy on you, too." And with a snicker, she was gone. I gasped in air, gripping ahold of my neck and swallowing with pain.

While I was preoccupied in trying to mentally produce endorphins, Evanen moved to the couch and bent down in front of me. "Let me see it," He said, reaching for my hands. I could suddenly visualize him breaking the bones of a girl my age or possibly even younger, ripping the flesh from a girl as she screamed in pain, and just the thought that he had done those things scared me. It reminded me that he was a monster, and those were the hands that had grabbed Kyler around the head and twisted her around until the bones of her neck snapped. It refreshed the memory of his fangs as he had growled at me at that store, before my life was changed. And with these reminders, I forgot why he was reaching for my neck, and I took in a deep breath and full out... screamed. It was a terrified and utterly crazed scream that I believe a person across the world would have no problem hearing. And it startled Evanen for a moment.

He reached up and grabbed my wrists, and I struggled furiously to get him to let me go before letting out another scream. Evanen moved closer to me, and I screeched, "Get away! NO, Go away!" And when he didn't go away, I started crying and begged instead, "Please, please leave me alone. Please don't hurt me. I'm sorry I screamed, please don't kill me."

"I'm not going to hurt you," Evanen said sadly, and he wiped the tears from my cheek with his thumbs. "I'll never hurt you, Hailence. If I knew that doing those things would've affected you, I wouldn't have ever done them. Ever. Please don't be scared of me. You can hate me all you want, but please don't be afraid of me." I took a deep breath, calming down, but I didn't respond because I couldn't help but be afraid of Evanen. He could turn on me whenever he wanted to, and I'm just a weak human while he could snap me in half with a finger. But I got control of myself, and continued to let him look at the bruising effect appearing on my neck due to the lovely Katha.


	22. Chapter 22: Curiousity Kills

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

_Curiousity Kills_

I woke up that night... or it most likely was day, but either way, I woke up because Mikel wasn't in my head. He seemed to be having more trouble lately in concentrating enough to enter any words into my thoughts, so he would wait awhile to build up the ability to do it without causing the reverbrating effect he had a while back. I think it had to do with the fact that he's been looking a bit tired. Maybe by feeding on humans, it's bothering his conscience and he's having trouble dealing with it. That's what I guessed it to be, because before he had been feeding on them, he seemed just fine in his health. But now it was getting easier to see that he was becoming more tired by the day by how human he seemed to be getting. Not human as in actually becoming human, I mean by how he isn't as quick in his sudden movement, and when he grips me a bit too hard, it's no longer a completely defining grip, but more of a human grip in its weakness. Plus, when I tried to get him to speak fast like that vampire language, he tended to be slow in it so that I could actually make out some words, and then that would tire him a bit.

I had asked if he was sick, but he said he wasn't... just a bit tired. That he'd get over it and for me not to worry. That response was the one that made me believe it was guilt, which was most likely. He wasn't used to killing innocent humans, so by suddenly doing it, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that it was bugging him. Which was why I wanted to tell him tonight not to do it anymore. To go back the way he used to do it, where he was healthier and less guilty... and he couldn't stand being around me too much. That's a downer, but it was worth his health. If being together meant he felt horrible, I preferred him to be happier in health.

Usually by now he had built up the strength to say something in my mind, but there was nothing. And this worried me. So on brave impulse, I moved out of Evanen's bed, which I've done before but not when his face was in front of mine like that. I was always afraid he'd wake up, but he didn't. He never did. So I moved to the bedroom door, and twisted the knob, expecting it to be locked. It wasn't. I opened it quietly, and shut it behind me just as quietly. I lightly stepped across the floor, moving my way towards Mikel's room. I've snuck my way to his room a couple of times, when I didn't want to run off somewhere in the night and just wanting to be held by him. To have him talk to me with his calming voice and look at me with his carmel brown eyes that said he'd never hurt anyone.

When I got to his room, I tapped on the door with my finger tips, causing no noise to even reach my ears, but it usually reached his. There was no response, and against better judgement, I opened the door quietly in order to step into the room. I was about to call Mikel's name, seeing as I couldn't really see too well, when I saw him laying on his stomach on the bed with pj pants on and no shirt, either dead or completely asleep. Both was unusual, because vampires don't usually sleep unless they're like Evanen, which none are as far I know. I didn't know too much what a dead vampire would look like, so I wasn't too sure about that. But the thought of him being dead scared me, but I didn't see any silver stabbed through him anywhere, and his head was still there. So I moved towards him carefully, expecting him to pop up like he had the first time I had ever expected him to be asleep.

I still couldn't see any sign of bites to drain him and he hadn't been starving himself or he would've gone crazy around me. So I assumed he must be asleep, which is weird but seeing as he had been tired lately I guessed that some vampires do have that down time. I moved onto the bed and crawled over to his body. "Mikel," I said lightly, "Mikel? Are you asleep?" He didn't move. "Are you dead?" No answer. "It's me, Hailence." And I reached over to touch his shoulder. The moment I touched him, he suddenly moved sharply and slammed me down onto the bed, pulling back his other hand into a fist in preparation to bash my skull in. I had the wind knocked out of me at the moment, and was trying to breath, but he had me pressed down by the chest and I couldn't expand my lungs.

His silver eyes seemed wild at the moment, but suddenly they widened in recognition, and he quickly released me. I gasped in air, rolling over onto my side, and water burned into my eyes. Mikel bent over me in concern, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I thought you were someone else... I guess I was asleep. I'm sorry. Are you okay? I didn't break anything, did I?" After a while of recovery, I waved off his questions, not feeling any abnormal pain that indicated a broken bone.

"I'm all right," I responded finally, "Just had the wind knocked out of me. It's okay." I moved back onto my back, breathing in deep breaths while Mikel peered at me guiltily. Then I pushed myself up to sitting position. "I wanted to talk to you." He moved a bit closer to me, and I could see how tired he looked suddenly.

"I don't think you should come around me anymore," Mikel said in response, "I'm feeling a bit weird."

"That's nonsense," I replied, irritated, "But that's what I'm here to talk to you about. I don't want you killing anymore humans just to be around me anymore. I want you to go back to the way you were, hunting only when you had to, and only going after the dying and old. I don't think you were made to be a regular vampire, and I don't want to force you to be one. So even if it means you won't be able to stand being around me, I want you to go back to the way you were."

"I can't," Mikel responded, shaking his head, "I can't give you up just so I'll feel better. I don't think I could handle that."

"But I can't handle you feeling so horrible," I said, suddenly feeling very depressed, "Please, just do it for me."

He moved closer to me until he was right in front of me. "I'm sorry," he moved his fingertips over my cheek, "I can't do it. I love you too much to just leave you alone, and if I did go back to the way I was, then I'd be more likely to hurt you, and that would tear me to pieces. So I can't." And I bent forward to kiss him before he returned it. This time it was different, though. It was almost as if we weren't ever going to see each other again, and suddenly I couldn't pull away from him and he didn't pull away from me.

Mikel pressed his hand against my lower back, pulling me closer to him, and suddenly he gripped my knee with his other hand. My heart started pounding furiously, and the feeling rushing through me was so much like fear, but I knew it was more than that. He pressed his lips against my neck and nipped it lightly with his teeth, causing me to gasp. "I've never done this before," I suddenly said on impulse. It was just something embarrassing that you felt a need to throw out there before it got too far.

"It's okay," Mikel reassured, "I'm almost sure I'm not going to kill you." And he smiled to show he was kidding, which didn't make me feel any much better, but I figured if I ever wanted to lose my virginity with anyone, I wouldn't find anyone as good as Mikel. So I pulled off my shirt, assuming that was the next best thing, and he lightly led me down against the bed before beginning to pull off my orange pajama shorts. At the expression on my face, Mikel hesitated. "Are you okay?"

I felt stupid, but I said, "What if someone hears us?" Mikel looked around and I decided I didn't care. "Nevermind." Then I thought about mentioning the fact that I'd always assumed there'd be music or something, but I decided I'd eventually be a mood killer if I kept it up. Which is probably what I was trying to do because I was kind of scared. But then Mikel was pressing his lips over mine lightly, and I felt as ready as I could, which wasn't much. It hurt quite a lot at first, but then I assumed the endorphins kicked in at some point. Plus, sometimes Mikel would grip me a bit too hard, but he seemed to understand the sudden hiss and wincing was a sign to slacken a bit. There were no shooting stars and fireworks, but love itself boiled enough to make up for any of that.

And eventually, he was holding me in his arms, his cold skin helping ease the immense heat from my own. I didn't feel too different besides the pain of the road not travelled until now and the bits of future bruises that I was sure Mikel had left on my arms especially. Still, I was utterly content laying next to Mikel, who still worried me even though he was trying to hide any sign of being exhausted. It's not right that a vampire becomes tired, when that's suppose to be erased by the power of vampirism, but I no longer mentioned it. Instead, I looked at him, and he looked at me.

"You still love me, right," I asked carefully.

"Why wouldn't I," He responded curiously.

"Well, they say that what we just did is the last mystery of a relationship, and that's what ends them," I stated curtly.

"I'm sure there's more mystery to find between a vampire and a human," Mikel said certainly. And I smiled.

"And if we get bored, you could always turn me into a vampire to spice things up," I suggested jokingly, and the expression on Mikel's face made me laugh. "I was just kidding with you. I promise I'll never become a vampire just for you, okay? I'll become some old lady and die by choking on a peanut, never to experience the joys of human blood." And he smiled.

The moment I slid into Evanen's room, I moved to the bathroom instead in order to wash off any scent of Mikel, even though in my head I figured that would be impossible, because now it felt like I was a part of Mikel and that's something you can't wash away. Still, I did the best I could, and then I inspected my body to see the arriving bruises on my arms and thighs, and just a few on my hips. Then a big whopper of one on my chest from where Mikel had first held me down and knocked the wind out of me. Those on the thighs, hips, and chest wouldn't be seen by Evanen, but the ones on the arms would, and I was a bit worried about it.

I put on pajama pants and a baggy t-shirt before sliding back into bed next to Evanen, whose sleeping self seemed to sense me and move closer to me. I went to sleep with my own thoughts running through my mind, humming, and ultimately drifting me into a contented sleep.

~...~

I nearly screamed when I woke up to see Evanen's face directly in front of mine. Instead I gasped in startlement, but then I sighed noticing he wasn't attacking me. "Where'd you get those bruises," Evanen suddenly asked, pointing at the ones on my arms that were viewable to him. I looked down at them, and suddenly put on a front of irritation.

"What, don't you remember clobbering me to death last night," I asked him angrily, "You sleep just like some crazy boy, you know? I had to practically beat you off of me because for some reason you thought I was some stuffed animal you could cling to... a bit too roughly if you ask me." And I grabbed my pillow and swung it on his head playfully. For a moment he just looked at me with his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but then he seemed to have let it go, and grabbed the pillow to lightly swing it against my own head. And then it was a period of a morning/nighttime pillow fight, in which Evanen won easily.

Evanen took me down to get some breakfast, where we were greeted with Cecilian's presence, but instead of trying to egg Evanen to follow her, she sat down at the counter with us. I slowed in my eating, both Evanen and I looking at Cecilian cautiously. This was weird behavior she was showing. Still, she didn't say anything for a moment, and then she asked how I was doing. Okay? Good.

"Mikel's seems to be doing a bit oddly," Cecilian stated suddenly, and I felt myself become flushed. See, I knew someone would've heard us. No wonder she's nice to me. She's probably completely sure that I'm not going after Evanen, and so any feelings of complete hatred towards me was gone. Now she just thinks I'm some stupid human, but not a threat either way.

"And we care why," Evanen said sarcastically, still brewing over those feelings of hatred towards Mikel.

"Because Mikel is still a Dreale, even if you don't like it. He's family," Cecilian snapped, "And you will show respect in front of me." Evanen glared at Cecilian bitterly, and I felt very weird because it felt as though this was a serious human family moment, with Cecilian being a strict mother scolding Evanen for talking bad about his brother, Mikel.

"We're all not actually related," Evanen stated bitterly.

Cecilian glared at him and said, "In the vampire world, having a group of vampires together with the same last name is--"

"--considered a family, yeah, yeah. So what about Mikel is it you want so to talk about. Spit it out already," Evanen interupted irritatedly. I kept quiet, continuing to eat my Apple Jacks today, especially the orangeish colored ones. But I listened closely because I wanted to see what Cecilian was going to say about the man I loved.

"I talked to him today about his present state, seeing as he seems to be acting oddly. And seeing as you avoid him, I'm sure you didn't notice, but he's becoming extremely weak and has started to spend more time sleeping in his room than natural of a vampire. Normally I'd say he's been starving himself, but he's been out feeding -- is out feeding right now -- and when he comes back I can smell the blood in him... plus he'd be going insane after your pet here. Any starving vampire would attack any human nearby to feed themself, but he isn't even interested in her," Cecilian stated as if in a business-like manner, but for some reason, I could slightly sense a bit of worry coming from her words, as though she might actually consider Mikel her son and might actually be concerned about his well-being.

"What do you want me to do about it," Evanen asked, trying to conceal the bitterness and apathetic feelings but failing miserably.

"I would like to hear your thoughts on what it could be," She responded, and waited for his thoughts.

"I think he's being an idiot," Evanen stated, "And is trying to get attention because he's a sad little vampire who wishes he were a human."

Cecilian scoffed at those thoughts, but before she could respond, I said, "I think he might be bothered about something." Cecilian and Evanen both looked over, Cecilian looking as though she had been waiting for my thoughts rather than Evanen's and Evanen looking as though I had smacked him or something. I ignored him. "I think that by feeding on actual humans rather than what he'd been doing, he's been trying to ignore his conscience, and now it's not working. I think feeding may be what's bothering him so much. His symptoms kind of resemble depression, if you asked me..." I moved off into a trail to make it seem as though my thoughts weren't actually needed to listen to.

"That makes more sense than being an idiot," Cecilian said, glaring at Evanen, "But I'm not too sure about that. Vampires don't usually turn weak like this, but it's possible." And she got up before leaving the room.

"Being depressed is being an idiot," Evanen muttered bitterly, obviously bothered by Cecilian's previous presence.

"I'm sure it is," I reassured him, shoving his shoulder before continuing with my breakfast. And then Evanen led me back to the room, telling me he was going to go hunting. I pouted, sitting down on the bed. "I wish you wouldn't."

"Sorry, but it's a job requirement in being a vampire," Evanen stated, and he was gone. I awaited a night full of boredom, seeing as Evanen took his sweet time hunting. Usually he has to walk about, look for the perfect one, and then get them alone before doing it. I knew, seeing as it had been one of my questions to him.

"What kind of girls are they or do you always just go after those who just are female and wear a bunch of black?" I had asked.

"Usually they're too curious for their own good, don't smoke, and laugh too much. Most are shy, but sometimes I find one who likes to talk a bit too much, and then when I get them, I'm never too rough with them. Remember? It's not like I tore you to pieces, I just sneak into it, and drain them until they're seconds from death. Then it's over." It was a conversation I hadn't particullarly enjoyed, but it was a bit interesting to hear the vampire view of things. I think I'd be just as curious with animals if they spoke my language. I could already imagine the questions I'd ask them.

I got bored pretty quickly of just sitting there, so I did my routine thing. I moved over to the door to try to see if it was locked, which it always was. But this time it twisted all the way, and then it was opened. I hesitated, no longer used to this type of freedom. And I looked out of the door slowly, searching to see if Evanen was here and testing me. But he wasn't there, and if he was, it was his fault that he left the door open. What is he going to do? Stay up forever to make sure I never leave? Confine me into the bathroom instead? Whatever. So I moved out of the room and stood there for a moment, utterly happy that I was kind of free.

And I moved my way towards the direction of the house I hadn't actually gone before. Normally I would go to Mikel, but a glance in the room showed me he was still out feeding and destroying his conscience. I cleared Katha's door from what I had known before was her room, not feeling the urge to die just yet. Then from there, I was a bit nervous because I couldn't exactly remember where the other two rooms of Drewdon and Cecilian were, so I decided not to go opening too many doors. At some point, I looked up because there was a string hanging from the ceiling. I figured it must lead to the attic, and in my curiousity, I pulled it down to unfold a ladder. Then I climbed up to the attic, wondering what vampires would hold up there. But when I looked around, there was nothing much up there except some big metal table looking thing leaning against the wall unused, and a door that led to a part of the roof that was flat and fenced off to look like a large balcony. I walked out to see that the view looked over the trees. It was a beautiful view, and I wondered what a sunset would look like from here. But then I got bored and went back down the ladder to look around elsewhere.

That's about the time when I saw a different set of stairs. I wasn't sure where it led, but when I looked down it, I just saw a door at the end. It had to lead to the first story, for if it were any further than that, the stairs seemed as though they would be longer. For a moment, I just looked down it, and then I figured nothing too bad could happen and I walked down the stairs to the door. I expected the door to be locked, but it opened easily and I was suddenly in a boxed in room with one other door and more stairs that led further down. I opened the door first to find myself in the kitchen. I hesitated, not remembering there ever being a door in the kitchen, and when I looked at the other side of the door, I could see why. It was the same shade as the wall, obviously a hidden door. I shrugged and shut the door, deciding I wanted to see what was in the basement of a vampire's house.

It seemed to get colder as I went down these stairs, and darker as well. At some point, I felt as though I should turn around, but I continued. And then I was in front of another door. I turned it, but it didn't open. Then I realize there was a bolt lock, and I twisted it until it was unlocked. There was a loud click, followed by dead silence. I listened for any movement upstairs, but there was nothing. And so I opened the heavy door slowly. The silence behind it wasn't so silent suddenly. It was like I had turned on some radio, and suddenly there were groans, whispers, gasps, and cries. I hesitated, but continued to move forward slowly. The heavy door shut behind me, making me jump.

It smelled horrible down here. And I couldn't see too well. This combined to cause utter fear as I slowed down in my walk. What was this? I walked far enough until suddenly something grabbed my ankle. I screeched, jumping the opposite way and ripping my ankle from the grip. I fell on the ground, which was slightly muddy for some reason. But then I stopped struggling in fear when I saw what had grabbed me was a young girl leaning against bars of what seemed like a cage. I hesitated, and then crawled towards her slowly.

"Hello," I asked quietly, for her eyes were closed and her sunken face was blank. I couldn't tell what color her hair was, for it looked sick and was probably dirty by how she smelled. I touched her arm, and it was as though I had touched skin on bone rather than any meat. "Are you alive?" She opened her eyes partly, but didn't respond. "What is this?" I looked around, and shoved myself back to my feet. Then I walked slowly down, now able to see the continuous cages that was lined on each side of me like a prison. Or a dungeon. There were people in each one. Some were by theirselves, and some were with masses of others. Most were emaciated, some were unconscious, and others were in the far darkness of the cages so that I couldn't tell if they were alive or not. I could assume why they were here, and it broke my heart. Why do the vampires go hunting if they have food under their house? Were they here just in case they felt like staying in? Why hadn't Evanen or Mikel told me about this place? What if someone was down here, now, and I didn't know it?

My heart started pounding in fear, but I was mostly in sorrow for the pains of everyone here. I could imagine them being people I knew, starved and caged for death. And suddenly I paused when someone said, "Hail?" It sounded familiar, which is what scared me, but I couldn't place the voice on any of the vampires. Then I looked in the direction it came from to see someone leaning against the bars weakly, peering up at me from the sunken face. "Is that you?" And this time I recognized the voice on the slightly recognizable face of D.J. My savior at the SoundStage, and most likely my human boyfriend if I hadn't been taken by vampires. I automatically dropped to ground in desperation, moving close to the bars.

"D.J., what are you doing here," I said in a squeaky voice, now scared to death for D.J. because he looked so sick and starved. Then when I tried to touch him, he jerked back extremely fast and I moved my hands back to myself. "I'm not a vampire, D.J. You don't have to be afraid of me. See?" I opened my mouth wide to show no fangs, though that technically wouldn't count because fangs can be retracted. "Not a vampire. You want me to cut myself and show you how I don't heal?"

"NO," D.J. yelled suddenly with fear, but then he said quietly, "No, don't do that." I wasn't exactly planning on doing it, but I didn't.

"How'd you get here," I asked, now struggling to find a way to open the door to the cage, which seemed to be locked by key. I looked around, but I wasn't sure where the keys would be. D.J. stayed a distance away from me now for some reason, but he didn't seem in too much of a hurry to escape.

"Um.. I was looking for you," D.J. said slowly, his words slurring by weakness, "And this girl came up to me. She was really pretty. Blonde hair. Angelic eyes. And she said her name was Katha and that she knew where you were because you were living with her brother. So she said she liked me and she wanted to take me to you just because she thought I was nice. So I got in her car, and she gave me a ride to this big house... and then she led me inside, but before I could find you, she suddenly bit me on the neck and I was paralyzed. And then I blacked out and woke up here." He indicated to the small cage he was in.

"How long ago was that," I asked, noticing how starved he was.

"A really long time. She'll come down sometimes to visit me, telling me about how you're doing... but you don't look as bad as she let on that you were," D.J. said, now looking at me in relief, "She said that her whole family were vampires, and that her brother... Evan or something was the one vampire who had you as his slave. That he liked to hurt you, and I didn't hear any screaming until yesterday. She said he got you real good yesterday. I thought you were dead. I'm sorry I couldn't come and save you like I meant to. I'm sorry, Hail." And he moved closer to me, holding out his hand with something in it. I stopped trying to pick at the lock to look at it. It was a silver bracelet linked by diamond hearts. "I meant to give this to you that last night I saw you.. at the party when Kyler died."

I started to grab it from his hand when he let it fall to the floor instead and pulled his hand back. "You don't have to apologize for anything, Darwin Einstein Jets," I said sharply, "None of this is your fault. And I'm going to get you out of here." I grabbed the bracelet and put it around my wrist. It was extremely beautiful, even in the darkness.

"I prefer to stay in here and die," D.J. stated with disgust.

"Don't talk like that," I responded, shocked.

"You don't understand," D.J. told me.

"I don't care, I'm not going to let you starve to death as a vampire's food supply," I said with determination, and I grabbed the lock and pulled. In one sharp movement, the lock slipped out of my hand, slicing open the palm of my hand suddenly, and I winced at the pain. "I didn't mean to do that." And I looked towards D.J. to see in the darkness that his eyes were a familiar silver film with a wild look. My heart fell down to my feet with the realization. With amazing speed, I jumped away from the cage just as he lunged at the bars towards me, growling hungrily, with his fangs bare in preparation to feed off of me. I cried out in pain.


	23. Chapter 23: With An Empty Heart

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

_With An Empty Heart_

"No," I cried, watching D.J. reach for me hungrily. "No, no, no, not you." I continued to just sit there, until D.J. was slowly starting to give up trying to reach me. I couldn't believe that Katha would do this to me. I couldn't believe that she'd hunted down D.J. just to turn him into a vampire and starve him. It was so cruel that it broke my heart. I continued to just cry, furious at all vampires for what they did to my life and my friends. First Kyler, and now D.J. They didn't deserve this. I wished I had died at that concert, and none of this would've happened.

"Don't cry," D.J. said, no longer sounding like himself, but like that monster in him, "Just come over to your little friend and let him give you a nice hug. I'll make you feel better. Come on over here, Hail. I gave you a bracelet, the least you could do is give me a hug. Come over here, beautiful. You know I wouldn't hurt you. I love you, remember? Remember the kiss? I love you. Come here. COME HERE!" I didn't move from where I was, now covering my face with my hands and sobbing.

What do I do? What could I do? I couldn't just leave D.J. here to starve to death, now able to live longer with the starvation because of his vampirism. I could let Katha continue to torture him. But I couldn't just set him free. He'd go crazy. Not only by killing me, but by going out and killing others. The D.J. I knew would hate to be a killer. He would _hate_ it. And I couldn't stand that. So what do I do?

"Come here," D.J. suddenly said, but this time it crept into my mind and tried to grab ahold on my thoughts. I twitched a bit, but the thought didn't hold long enough to actually put me in danger. Still, he could figure it out, and that scared me enough to come up with a decision. I got up and started to walk away. "Where are you going?! Hailence, please don't leave me! Please don't let me die down here!" I could suddenly hear the real D.J. in him, but I continued to walk back up the stairs, moving up the other stairs until I was on the second floor. Remembering where the stairs were, I headed towards Evanen's room.

Once I entered the room, I recalled what Evanen had said. '...if you wanted to do it manually, you'd have to use solid silver to the heart or head...' I'd need solid silver for that. 'Got a good, silver dagger myself in one of my drawers upstairs... it's the third one down on the left of the maple dresser..' I headed for the maple dresser and opened it to find a silver dagger under the clothing. It was extremely sharp, which was good, and with an empty heart, I headed back for the stairs. It didn't seem too long before I was back in the dungeon, but at the heavy doors I looked around to find the keys hanging on a nail on the side wall. I headed down the hall of cages, concealing the dagger under my shirt, until I found D.J. back in the farthest corner of his cage.

"Go away," D.J. said, "Go away, Hail, before I kill you. _Worse_ than kill you."

"Don't be silly, D.J.," I responded, and I started on the lock. D.J. didn't say anything else, but kept to the place he was. I unlocked the lock, and bent down to crawl towards D.J. My heart was pounding, but something told me he would be pretty weak for a vampire, that I'd be able to do it. "I just want to give you one last hug before I leave you here, D.J." The wound on my hand was reopened by the crawling, and D.J. started to look wild again. So instead of telling me to go, he moved towards me.

"Okay, just a nice long hug," D.J. agreed, and he was sharply in front of me. I opened my arms, and he entered my hug, holding me tightly against him so that I felt his stone hard, cold skin. While he reached around me, moving my hair from my neck slowly so as to not warn me of his intentions, I pulled the dagger from under my shirt and reached around his back to position it just above his skin where I knew his heart would be.

"I'm sorry, D.J.," I said sadly, and just before he bit down on my neck, I thrusted the dagger as far as I could into his flesh. It was easier to do than I thought, probably because the solid silver made his skin as soft as paper. The sudden screech that erupted from his mouth scared me, but while he tried to get away from me, I held tighter and gained more strength to pull the dagger further in him until I felt the hilt touch his skin. And he was suddenly quiet. I let go then, moving away from him a bit, and watched as his skin softened a bit to show that his real corpse was only about a week old. I grabbed the dagger, and left the cage, not even bothering to lock it shut. He was dead. He wasn't going anywhere. I looked at the dagger to see that there wasn't even any blood on it. It probably burned off.

I moved up the stairs, and started up the second set of stairs. Just before I could reach the second floor, Evanen appeared out of thin air in front of me. I could imagine his first sight of me; my walk of death, mud smeared all over my pants and hands, along with the nice gash on the palms of my hands, his dagger hanging beside me limply, my hair probably an after effect of a tornado, and the tears starting to build in my already red eyes. For a moment, he stood there in front of me in half spring, as though he had been prepared to fly down the stairs, and he fixed his eyes on the silver dagger.

"Drop it," he suddenly snarled threateningly, as though I had it to his neck in preparation to kill him. I didn't even hesitate. I let it fall from my hands, not particularly attached to the object I'd used to kill a guy who I'd known for over a year... a guy who'd saved my life... who had liked me not as food but as a real person... I suddenly couldn't hold it in, and I stepped forward towards Evanen, burrying my face into his chest, and started sobbing. At some point, I attempted to explain what had happened, but it sounded something like "I-I-I-aaaaaa..." It was pitiful. Evanen merely tapped my shoulder awkwardly before herding me back to his room where I could spill my tears on the bedsheets rather than on his shirt. He left, this time making sure the door was locked, but arrived not long later with the silver dagger wrapped in a cloth. I wasn't paying attention to him, so I didn't know where he put it this time. It didn't matter. I wasn't planning on going anywhere soon.

Once my sobs had ceased to be so violent and I'd moved into the stage of hyperventilation, Evanen slide onto the bed beside me, placing himself back as my outer surface. "You want to explain what happened," he asked, trying to sound sincere in his concerned voice, but only making himself sound more inconsiderate. He didn't understand why people cried. He didn't understand normal emotions; the natural feelings that comes with different actions and words. Instead of trying to give me time, he merely wanted to know why I had disobeyed him and left the room while he was gone. He had to know that I'd killed someone obviously important to me, but he didn't understand why a person would be sad about killing someone... probably because he thought if you killed someone, they obviously _weren't_ important to you. Death never was an issue with him. Someone dies... they're dead. No need to worry over it. But even though I knew all this, it still enraged me.

"Leave me alone," I snapped, digging my face into the soaked pillow even further.

"I leave, expecting you to be safely hidden from harm in this room, and I come back to find you looking as though you'd nearly been killed, with my silver dagger in your hands, a weird expression on your face, and a dead vampire toy down in the dungeon," Evanen stated, as though I didn't know all that already. The expression 'vampire toy' hurt, though. "Tell me why you were about killing vampires and crying about it."

"_Leave me alone_," I raged.

"You know that Katha is throwing a fit about this, right," Evanen moved closer to me, "That vampire was her toy, and you killed him. Now she won't shut up about it. She's after your head. Why couldn't you just leave things alone? Do you have a problem with staying out of trouble?" He didn't sound annoyed or anything. He sounded neutral in the whole subject, merely a computer wanting the facts to be processed. But the fact that he expected me to feel what I did was wrong merely because it affected Katha's fun set the bomb off. I shoved myself up, looking towards Evanen with a killer look. He just looked at me, waiting for a response.

"Stop. Calling. Him. A. Toy," I snarled, the rage flowing through me in waves of heat that hurt my head, "His name was D.J.! And I don't give a _fuck_ what Katha thinks. She tricked him here. She got him here because he was my friend. She _turned_ him so he'd live longer while he STARVED! And you expect me to be worried about some TROUBLE I'm in?! _He's dead_! Not long ago he was listening to music with me, and now I've _killed_ him... and you... and you... _you_!" I swung at his face with all my might, and he moved his head back easily before I could touch him -- which was probably a good thing because there's no telling how much that would've hurt me and not him. "_I hate you!_" I wanted to do more. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to attempt to kill him. I wanted to do anything... so that he wouldn't keep me here anymore. But he wouldn't do anything even if I tried. He wouldn't end my life because he would just assume I was just being weird in that human way.

I shoved my face back into the pillow and moaned, "Just kill me already. You've done it to the rest of them. You've experimented on me. And not touching me is just as sufferable as ripping me to peices, so kill me already." He didn't say anything. Instead, he moved his finger over the back of my hand, and I pulled it away sharply. Then he laid down, resting his head so that he could stare at me as I tried to suffocate myself unsuccessfully.

"I'm not going to kill you, Hailence," he said quietly, but I ignored him. Eventually, my body got the hint that things in the conscious world wasn't doing too well, and it numbed the pain by darkening everything until there was nothing but the black darkness of an unrestful sleep.

~...~

I no longer felt the urge to leave the bedroom anymore. I didn't find the idea of actually seeing Katha very desirable, so the only time I left the bedroom was when Evanen was asleep. And then I'd slip into Mikel's room, who seemed to be getting worse in his guilt day after day. The only thing we did lately was lay against each other and sleep. I'd suggest each time for him to go back to how he used to be, and how he was starting to worry me. He would say he'd get over it... that he was just not feeling much himself lately, but it'd end soon enough. But he was starting to look a bit like D.J. had down in the dungeons.. only cleaner. Plus, he didn't feel the need to attack me. It was strange. I never thought guilt would eat away at a vampire as much as it was Mikel. But I'd never known a vampire actually, so what could I know? Cecilian didn't seem to be too bothered by it after I explained my thoughts on it. Then again, I hadn't seen her seeing as I've isolated myself. Evanen didn't talk about him, either, but Evanen hates Mikel anyway. He's probably enjoying Mikel's continuing disappearance.

Evanen didn't mention the D.J. incident after that one night, so I didn't know if Katha got any rise out of anyone. The only thing Evanen did was appear into the room with food every once in a while. Plus, he'd become enamored of my hair, which was an object of my body that I was becoming less enamored of as I noticed the ends splitting due to lack of care. Not to mention the layers that now seemed at even lengths and my foul bangs that were becoming longer along with the rest of my hair. I was in the process of convincing Evanen to allow me to express myself by at least trimming my hair and turning it back to normal, but at the moment he denied that pleasure for he "liked how wild and long it was becoming" because apparently vampire hair doesn't ever become damaged. Though I didn't see anything interesting in damaging hair, Evanen did, which gave me more of a reason to want to rid myself of its attraction to Evanen. As for what Mikel thought... well, his thoughts were becoming less and less sensable, seeing as he was becoming less and less of himself.

When I believed I was alone, I laid on my back on the end of the bed, where there were no pillows to prop my head up. I allowed my repulsive hair to be splayed around my head, and breathed in slowly and deliberately. It was a moment I was having where I questioned my past, present, and future. Mainly my present because I was never sure if I was actually existing. Especially when it was dead quite like such times as this, and I had to reassure myself that I wasn't dead. This was living. Surviving, at least. Besides that fear, I enjoyed being spread out like this. It made me feel as though I could actually become aware of each square inch of my presence. I felt exposed; free in an open space of emptiness. That or I was becoming more insane than originally. Isolation can't be good for the soul.

Evanen was suddenly next to me so rapidly that it was almost as if he'd been there for hours. In fact, I hadn't heard the door open or close, nor felt any pressure on the bed, to indicate that he had come back from his hunting. He was just suddenly there, his face more alive with a glint in his eyes that usually told me he got a good catch. I preferred not to think about those things, and so when I finally registered that he hadn't been there the whole time... that he'd used his super vampire-ness in order to suddenly appear next to me... I continued to stare at the ceiling and concentrate on breathing.

This wasn't one of those times when Evanen just wanted to stare at me, twirl his fingers in my hair, and breathe in my very essence as though devouring my soul. No, this was a time when Evanen had something on his mind that he wanted to share. And usually when _Evanen_ is the one with the topic, it isn't one that I enjoy talking about. Sure enough, he said, "I just had a very interesting kill not too long ago.." A topic I avoid purposely because it has to do with him killing someone. Not something that brings along good sleep, seeing as _I sleep next to him_. And I wasn't afraid to mention this fact to him in order to avoid damage to my mental health.

"I prefer not to think about such subjects, thank you," I informed Evanen before he could go further into his details. Then I took the time to actually look at him. His electric blue eyes were scary in their sharp movements, and ability to focus on certain points so hard that it was as though he'd look right through them. I wondered what he saw when he looked into people's eyes. His bleach blonde hair was sticking out in odd ends, along with his snake bites and tongue ring, to fit in with the punked style. It was creepy how smooth his skin was spread over his body, tense on all ends in that way that said he could snap me in half a second. But all the these aspects that would strike fear in a person were canceled out by the expression on his face, which always was a morbid "come-here-and-hug-me-because-I'm-damaged" expression. Except at the moment, he was leaving that front alone, and was back to an odd, placid look on his face that came off to show the in-human part of him, but he also had his mouth parted, eyes widened a bit, and a curious arch of his eyebrow that told me something had occured to him.

"How can you go about asking all these questions about vampirism, and never want to know about the one thing that dominates a vampire's living arrangement," Evanen asked, and in a flash, he was arched over me in such a way that his face was just above mine but not one surface of his body was touching me, each of his hands on opposite sides of my head, but not touching my hair. Normally, I'd feel the sudden trespass into my personal bubble, but Evanen had no understanding of that term or feeling. And so I'd become accustomed to this.

"I assume you use some sort of magic trick, coax some poor person into your arms, and smother their screams by ripping their throats out with pleasure that pulses throughout you," I stated, a bit of sarcasm here and there. "And so I'm not so curious about it." Evanen smiled, and I knew that this time he wasn't going to allow this conversation to go my way. I was just about sure that he was going to feed my nightmares with death.

"Is that what I did to you? Rip your throat out," he asked absently. I didn't respond, knowing that that wasn't exactly the case. "You only think you're not curious about it because you're human. I think you'd be the most intrigued vampire..." I suddenly felt uncomfortable under him. He merely continued to watch me for a moment before continuing, "Do you find me attractive?" There wasn't a smirk on his face to see if this was a joke. The first thing that went through my head was 'extremely', but then I wasn't going to spit that out. He might take that as an opening to ask me to marry him or something, and I prefer not to feed his obsession over me. I'm taken... but then _he_ doesn't know that.

"I refuse to feed your ego," I responded shortly and finalized the response by turning away. At least with my head because I wasn't going anywhere. It was a mistake, for Evanen bent down slowly to rest his mouth just above my now revealed neck, and he breathed in hungrily. I was suddenly rigid. It was scary how continuously blood-thirsty Evanen was. He suddenly blew lightly on my skin, trailing up to my jaw before gently kissing my jaw just below my earlobe. I felt an involuntary chill, and he chuckled triumphantly.

"I knew it," He said moving back a bit so that I could return to glare at him. "See, as I was hunting today, I took care in noting everything I do in order to inform you of every aspect so that it'd be another vampire topic I could feed your curiousity with."

"I don't want to--," I started, but was interupted by his finger to my lips.

"I started out by figuring just what brought my food to me," He just totally flung the word 'food' out there... eh, "And it turned out that I never do anything to convince them to me. I just walk around, and once I focus on them, they start to focus on me. I think it's some sort of chemical we can release that can target certain ones. And I think that mainly it's just physical attractions that drops their guard and tempts them toward me. Unlike with you, though, for you just followed along without me even targeting you. I think it might be because of that too curious personality you have..." I closed my eyes, not looking forward to this talk.

"Usually, I like to find out a bit about my food, and this time it was a 16 year old girl named Ashley, but she renamed herself Viola for some reason. She liked medium-rare steaks, the show 'Scars', black, The Beatles oddly, and peanut butter. She hated pink, bubblegum, Hip Hop, American Idol, and her parents, who abused her as a child before she was left to an orphanage. She was in therapy for attempted suicides, but wished nothing more but for her life to be ended," Evanen stated, before smirking, "I love those types."

"Okay, I get it, you killed her, now please shut up and leave me alone," I suddenly pleaded, reaching up to cover my ears before Evanen lightly pulled them away and to my sides. He was frowning, obviously wondering what he was doing wrong again. That was the thing with Evanen. He never knew what was the right thing to talk about. I asked about vampires, and he felt he needed to tell me every aspect of it when a topic came to him that had to do with my taste. He lacked the ability to think of death as a bad thing, as it was thought of by humans. Especially murderous death.

"Fine, I'll stopped talking about one kill specifically," Evanen suddenly said, deciding on a good way to continue while resolving my discomfort in the subject. Not the way I meant to go, but it was an improvement. "What about fangs? Do you want to know about fangs?" I nearly said no, but then hesitated. Now that I'd thought about it, fangs seemed like an interesting subject. Evanen caught the sudden interest, so he settled on a subject, happy he had come up with one to my taste. "Okay," he moved off of me, pulling me up to sitting position, but still as close as ever, "Watch this, but don't be afraid because I'm not going to hurt you."

He moved his hands to his mouth, raising his upper lip above his seemingly normal teeth. I felt suddenly nervous, but I kept myself composed. Suddenly, in slow movement, I saw a thick film lower from his gums just above his canines/cuspids. I was suddenly very intrigued, and actually moved closer for a better look as the film of an outer covering for the teeth moved further and further down to cover the cuspids so that they were no longer the normal, slightly sharped cuspids, but now extremely sharp, dangerous fangs. I always had assumed either an extra tooth moved into the rows of normal teeth or that the cuspids just spontaneous went under chemical change and were suddenly sharper. But it was almost as if an extra sharp layer enveloped the original tooth.

"Cooool," I said, but automatically wished to take that comment back, "But not cool enough for me to actually want a pair." Evanen let go of his lip, allowing his teeth to go back to human form, and smiled at me. Vampires were so odd in how they had so many kinks in order to stay hidden from the human's alert radar system. They seemed innocent at first, but once they decided to reveal themselves, it was over. I thought of how even Mikel still refused to allow his fangs to appear in front of me, as though they taunted him to use them. It was strange how this didn't seem to affect Evanen.

"Getting fangs to appear is almost an unconscious thought. It's like clutching your hand into a fist. When you become angry or about to get in a fight, you prepare subconsciously by tightening into a fist. When we're about to feed, they grow out without actually having to think about it. But then there is a difference because you can ball your hand into a fist randomly for no reason without an effect," Evanen lectured slowly, "But for most vampires, when they let their fangs appear, it's as though it releases some sort of chemical to the brain that makes them want to use it. The body assumes you have it out for a reason, and so it deepens the thirst to fulfill the purpose. Only experienced vampires can control it with ease... and apparently someone who has always been a vampire." I suddenly found my question to Mikel's relunctance answered.

"Does it hurt," I asked curiously.

Evanen frowned in thought, "I don't know. I'd have to ask someone else here... Cecilian or Katha most likely. But it never bothered me. There might be a difference with newborn vampires; them not being so used to it. The thing is, you'd have to think about how being a vampire seems to erase most things that would cause pain. So simple things, like cuts or anything, don't really hurt anymore. Only things that could kill us seem to hurt, like the sun, silver, and things of that sort. But then it seemed to hurt them when I would drain them, so I wouldn't know if fangs were involved with that." I apparently brought up new thinking material. I suddenly found myself gripping my cuspids between my fingers, imagining how weird it would be if they were cut-throat sharp. Evanen watched me for a moment before saying, "I think you'd look beautiful with fangs." I stopped messing with my teeth immediately.

"I think not," I responded curtly. And to avoid any further talk of the subject, I moved away from him, laying on my stomach and facing away from him. For a moment, there wasn't any motion from Evanen. Then he suddenly couldn't stand the distance and moved towards me. He lightly started to move my hair away from my face so that he could see me, and I flicked at his hands to no prevail. He bent down until his lips were above my ear.

"Hailence, you make me feel strange," Evanen stated, and his voice sounded so confused that it suddenly caused a skip in my heart beat. "I never usually feel anything, actually, and so the fact that you make me feel something is strange. I have an urge to protect you, but I can't help but keep you in danger because I can't stay away from you." He paused, and I felt so weird considering I thought I had already heard something like this.. from Mikel. "I never felt the need to preservate someone in all my life, especially a human. And you entertain me in such a way... it was confusing. But I think I know what this is... even though I didn't know that this could happened to me." I held my breath. Here it comes.

"I'm in love with you," Evanen finished suddenly, and I closed my eyes before groaning. There was only one way to put this straight. I shoved myself up to sitting position so that I could face him straightforwardly. But before I could do anything, Evanen was suddenly gripping my head lightly, and pressing his cold lips over my moist lips. I raised my hands in shock, keeping my lips clamped shut in surprise. He let go, looking a bit confused.

"Well," I said, smacking my lips together over and over as though I had just tried a new type of chili and was thinking over how exactly it tasted for judgement. That or you could consider it my way to make sure my lips were going to work properly. "Thanks for that and all, but no." There was a very large, awkward silence. Well, awkward in my part, seeing as Evanen probably never experienced that feeling either. He seemed to just be calculating my answer.

"You mean no as in--," He started.

"As in no," I responded, "No, you do not love me. You're just a bit confused."

He smiled coyly, "I'm not confused, Hailence."

I sighed, "You don't love me." Maybe if I say it enough, he'll believe it.

"I do, too." I suddenly felt like I was arguing with a child.

"You don't."

"I do."

"Well, I don't love you," I broke the chain that would last forever, silently completely the sentence in my head 'I love Mikel.' Evanen peered at me thoughtfully, as though he didn't quite believe my response. Believe it, though. It was true. What reason had Evanen given me to fall for him? He hadn't killed me yet? Oh, wow. He told me my dad wasn't dead? Who's fault would it be if he did die? He gave me my notebook? He took away my life. He gave me Kyler's hair pin? _He killed Kyler_.

Evanen suddenly raised himself up, heading towards the door. I sighed in relief, glad that that was over. Then he turned, "If you don't love me now, you will. You'll see." And he left. Okay, so it wasn't over. That didn't leave me the least bit happier than I had been previously. So how did I solve this problem? Easy. I laid on my back to stare at the ceiling and put my mind on other things. Such as every memory I had with D.J. besides the part when I killed him. At least before, when I was taken here for forever, I knew he was alive. There could've been a chance that we would've met again. But now that illusion was finished. Now D.J. was with Kyler... never to be seen again. I started to cry again.


	24. Chapter 24: Gone

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

_Gone_

Evanen decided my daily life was becoming a bore to even him. How my activities bore him more than me is beyond my mental capacities. So the only way he could think to entertain me was to drag me down into a new room that was lit up with more lights than plug-in sockets and have me challenge my mind by figuring out puzzles. All the furniture was shoved to the walls so that we could spread out on the white, plush carpet that looked expensive. So - in spite - I purposely dropped some food crumbs into it and spilled a bit of drink as well. Stain, foul carpet, stain! Still, I would have to say it was a bit better than staring at the ceiling, but probably another attempt to try to "gain entrance into my heart" or something like that.

I looked up from the puzzle of what was suppose to be a difficult rain forest in some place that was probably ten times better than where I was situated at the moment. "Why all the lights," I asked Evanen curiously, "I thought vampires didn't like all the light and stuff." The room was scary in how every little detail could be seen due to all the lamps and so forth. Evanen looked about himself, seeming to feel a bit of pride in his work. Most likely, he had stolen all the lamps in the house just for this one room. I was becoming concerned of his mental state.

"I figured you'd enjoy all the light. I heard from someone that when a human is in the darkness too long, it starts to get to them mentally, so I figured I'd light up this room as though it was as bright as a sunny day. Then you won't miss being outside, soaking up the sun, and I won't have to worry about getting burnt up myself," he explained. My first thought was something about how he was now asking for advice from others in concern of my health. The second thought was more about how it was becoming creepy how thoughtful he was becoming in his overly-creative ways to make me feel better about being here. See, I hadn't noticed too much that I was in the dark, except for those moments when it seemed that my eyes were missing the sunlight rather than me. It was as though the constant dim lighting was starting to put pressure on my eyes, and that merely caused some headaches. But if anything, being in the sunlight was annoying to me now. Especially since the Soundstage attack, when I became partially albino. Not technically, but basically.

I sighed, and looked at the 2,000 piece puzzle. "I give up," I stated shortly, sitting up to start chomping on a Dorito. I was planning on wiping the cheese off my fingers and into the white carpet. Oh, I hoped that would annoy someone. Maybe Cecilian. I can see Cecilian being the one picking out this perfect, white carpet. Well, now partially orange. If asked about it, I'll just suggest the idea that it went under X-inactivation. That's what happens with Calico cats, right? That's why they're different colors, so maybe carpets can go under that same transformation. I'll have to try my best at not making it sound believable.

Evanen seemed disappointed in my lack of determination. "But you didn't even finish putting the border together. That's the easiest part," He responded, pointing at the half of the top border I had done. I looked at it dully, not partically sad about my failure.

"I've never been much of a puzzle person," I said sincerely, as though to console him. "Why don't you put it together?" If he wasn't so intense in his tough-guy act, I was sure he'd cross his arms and pout like a child. But then he dumped out all of the puzzle pieces, and in a breath, the border was finished. I blinked as though he had tricked my eyes.

"There, now you finish," Evanen insisted, but now I was completely amazed.

"That.. was cool," I stated, bending forward to look at the border. "You did that in, like, half a second." He looked at the border without much interest in his own abilities, and I slipped a puzzle piece into my hand from the free pile. "Now _you_ complete it." I sat back to await the amazement. For a moment, he seemed a bit annoyed.

"But that's cheating," He said defiantly.

"Well, I'm a cheater," I responded, "Now do it. Do it.. now... go.. do it.. It's all right, I won't tell on you." And I smiled brightly. This finally won him over, and he spreaded out the puzzle pieces deliberately. Then he started on it, and I watched in great enjoyment as the puzzle started to resemble the picture on the box in mere seconds. But then he stopped.

"I'm missing a piece," He said, looking about. I didn't respond, but he still looked straight at me as though I had snickered, giving away the location of the missing piece. He held out his hand, palms up. "Hand it over." I finally smirked, but didn't release it in my hand. I didn't even show it, feeling as though he could just snatch it in seconds. He seemed a bit annoyed by this, though, which confused me a bit seeing as it was just some game.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," I stated, lifting up my head to jut my chin out defiantly.

Evanen scoffed, "Did you forget that I have great senses, and I can smell that cardboard in your hand anyways." I smiled, ducking my head down sheepishly. "Now give it to me or do you not want me to finish the stupid puzzle."

I mocked his scoff, "Like I care. Or did you forget that I hate puzzles." And I shoved myself to my feet. "If you really want it, you'll have to catch me." I started out the door, towards the front of the house where the stairs were. It's not as though I didn't know he could catch me in a milisecond. I was just bored and felt like annoying him anyways. In fact, by the time I got halfway up the stairs, Evanen was at the top, leaning against the rails and waiting for me to catch up to him. I laughed, moving to go around him, but he grabbed my wrists to stop me.

"Gotcha," He said, looking a bit demented. I smiled, trying to pull my hands out of his grip, but I knew that wouldn't work. There was only one way out of this. Trick him. So, I sharply twisted my face from a careful smile to a sudden grimace in pain as I flexed my hands and whimpered. Evanen looked a bit confused.

"Quit it," I whined, "You're hurting me!" And he quickly let go of my wrists, falling for my bluff. I duck under him with a 'HA!' and started bolting down the hallway. I twisted around the corner, not thinking much of where I was going until I was far enough to see a group of people standing at Mikel's door a couple of doors down the hall. Before I could see anything beyond the identification of Cecilian, Katha, and Drewdon as those people, Evanen was suddenly in front of me in a flash, pushing me back, and looking behind him as though he were an animal under attack. I was now completely confused, and automatically struggled against Evanen's insisting pushes towards the opposite direction of Mikel's room.

"What's wrong," I asked, trying to look past Evanen's body to see why they were looking into the room with grave faces. "What's happened? Why are you... What are you.." I shoved Evanen's chest, not budging him a bit, and now angry at his silent, urging pushing towards our room. "Why are they... Is it Mikel? What's wrong with Mikel?" And suddenly my efforts to see what was happening became more urgent as I completely hauled myself against Evanen.

"Hailence," Evanen said, trying to grab a good hold of me, "Calm down. It's nothing. Mikel's just dead, and I don't think you should see it. You seem to have a problem with dead things and-" I screeched in rage and disbelief. I tried to duck under Evanen's arms towards Mikel. Mikel, who was _not_ dead. He's a vampire! Vampires don't just die! They can't! Evanen grabbed my arms, and I screeched again.

"_Mikel! Mikel_," I screamed, hoping that he'd hear me and come out of his room to tell Evanen to leave me alone. When no one came, I looked at Evanen and started begging, "No, no, no, he's not dead. He can't be dead. He's a vampire. He's a vampire! _Vampires don't die! MIKEL!_" I lunged myself at Evanen as though I could just fly through him, and he finally gave up on trying to be gentle with me. He bent down and grabbed me by my waist to haul over his shoulders. Then he started carrying me towards his room while I screeched angrily, hitting him with all my might. I could see the three of them - Katha, Cecilian, and Drewdon - talking quietly, and Katha was the only one who looked up at my screams for Mikel. But it wasn't sympathy in her eyes. It was blame. I could feel her blaming me as she darkened her look with a smoldering glare.

Once I had be hauled into the room, Evanen swung me over onto the bed, and I scrambled to my feet so that I could lunge at the door. Before I could take two steps, Evanen snatched my upper arms and I tried to rip them from his grip. When that didn't work, I screamed. I wanted to see that they're all wrong. I wanted to see for myself that he was fine. He had just been a bit tired, a bit guilty. Vampires don't die from emotion alone. I couldn't understand why Evanen would even say that, but something in the way he had just thrown it out there made me fear that he hadn't been lying. Plus, he was so desperate for me not to see if Mikel was alive. I didn't care if he was going to connect my desperate attempt to not believe them with Mikel and my relationship. I didn't care if Evanen knew. I just wanted to see Mikel.

"Be quiet," Evanen suddenly ordered firmly into my ear, and the words crawled to my every thought until I could no longer scream. But even though I couldn't make a sound anymore physically, I was a rage of noise on the inside. I turned to glare at him through my tears, and he merely left me in the room, locking the door behind him. I moved to the door, trying to force it open before finally sinking to the floor. I slammed my head against the door and opened my mouth to try again to yell for Mikel, but nothing was allowed to come out.

It's amazing how unreal death can seem. I couldn't imagine not ever seeing a person so wrapped into my life again. Just the thought sent an odd pain to my stomach, and I clutched my knees to my chest, having extreme trouble breathing. I couldn't understand how Mikel, out of all the ones I'd loved, could die so soon. It couldn't be true if it couldn't be understood. I could still feel his touch on my skin, just like I could still see Kyler's smile in my eyes, and D.J.'s music in my head. But what scared me the most was that I would forget him, just like I was slowly forgetting things about Kyler and D.J... and my dad, who wasn't even dead. It was unfair that a person could just be gone.

~...~

At some point as I was as pressed against the door as possible, I slowly opened my hand to see the puzzle piece still pressed into my palm. I hadn't even notice it bending under my grip, and loosening with my moist hand. I wondered for a moment if the puzzle game was just something to distract me while they figured out what to do with Mikel. I wondered how long he'd be gone before I had noticed. I wondered if I had stayed in the room with Evanen, how long it would've been before I would've been told he was gone. I wondered if Evanen was happy about this. And I was furious with the thought that he was and I knew that he had wanted this. So then I was wondering how exactly Mikel died, and if it wasn't because Evanen had caused it.

Before I could contemplate on revenge of any sort, the door clicked, telling me Evanen was back. I dropped the puzzle piece, and moved away from the door, crawling back so that the door wouldn't hurt me. Except when it opened, I was shocked to see Katha at the threshold. I would've naturally felt scared, but at the moment I was a bit void of emotion besides rage. Plus, the first thing Katha did was frown at my presence on the ground and put a finger to her lip so that I wouldn't make a sound. This motion was pointless because I was still a bit tongue tied due to Evanen to even say anything anyways. She moved forward, and I tensed up a bit.

Katha bent down, some of her blonde hair swinging to confront my face so that I could suddenly smell a refreshing odor coming from their depths, and she started to whisper. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm just here for Mikel," Katha said quietly in the most non-threatening way. I was still a bit wary of her words, not sure if they were actually sincere or not. "He's dead. I've loved him since I saw him, and after I turned him, I loved him even more for his sympathy of humans. He saw something in you.. something good, and the only thing he wanted was for you to get out of here alive. And now he's dead. So... I'm here to get you out; to fulfill his last wish."

I frowned, lowering my eyebrows in distrust, but Katha just continued to look at me sincerely. After a moment, she stood up and held out her hand. "I'm serious this time. Mikel's gone. There's nothing to worry about you anymore," she said, still speaking quietly so that Evanen wouldn't detect her trying to help me escape. I still didn't move, and she frowned. "Don't you want to see your real family again? Your friends are still out there, living without you. Don't you want your life back?" I hesitated, but then decided to trust her for once. I reached up to grab her hand. She pulled me to my feet, and without letting go of my hand, she led me out of the room.

I wondered how she was just going to lead me out of the house, but she continued to pull me along towards the stairs. Katha moved down the stairs, tugging me along like a dog on a leash, and she opened the front door before we were suddenly out in the darkness. I automatically looked up at the sky, half-wishing I'd be blinded by the light of the sun; something I hadn't seen for awhile... and something you don't notice is missing until it's missing. Somehow, I believed that if the sun were just up, I'd be awake again to the smell of pancakes and coffee, and the sound of some car commercial on the television. Then I could bound out of my room in my pajamas and pull clean clothes out of the dryer for school that day. Instead, the stars just glared at me from above, unmoved by my wishes, and condemning in their numbers.

Katha led me to a small car, and I moved to the passenger side. Once inside, I was reminded of how Mikel had taken me on that trip to Kyler's grave and back home, and I felt the pain in my stomach again. I curled against the door, pressing my head against the window as I tried not to start crying again. We pulled out of the driveway without anyone busting out of the house to capture us, and I sighed in relief as the thought-binding order in my mind slowly eased away until I felt as though I wasn't choking as much. So instead of thinking about what I was missing, I started thinking about what I was going back to. I pictured my dad's surprise when he woke up and found me on the couch. I would beg him to forgive me for running away, and he would be angry for a little while, but eventually his grey eyes would soften and I'd be his again. I imagined going back to school... school... was it still summer?

I turned to look at Katha, who hadn't said a word since the house. "How long have I been here?" She glanced over, seeming to no longer want me to speak to her. Maybe she hadn't forgiven me yet, and was just letting me go so that she wouldn't have to look at me anymore. But at least I was finally escaping.

"Almost five months," Katha stated apathetically. The thought that I'd been gone for nearly half a year shocked me. And I blocked it out by thinking back to what I had been imagining. School would definitely be back by now. In fact, summer had been over around three months ago, which meant I was three months behind on being a Senior. My last year of high school, and I spent the first three months housed in with vampires. What a story that'd make with my friends. I was suddenly feeling much more happy about the prospect of going home. I could visit Kyler's grave... I wouldn't know about D.J. of course, seeing as he had probably disappeared to everyone. I wondered if I should tell them he died. I felt depressed once again, feeling that I would have to keep that part quiet. Poor D.J.

The car suddenly pulled into a short road, which led into God knows where. I hesitated mentally. "Where are we going," I asked cautiously, now not so sure going with Katha - of all people - was such a good idea. She didn't seem to be trying to hide anything, though, and she was calm.

"I can't just drop you off into town. Someone would see, and they'd probably take down this car in the books so that they could hunt us down for interrogation on your little girlfriend," Katha said shortly, and she glanced at me. "I'm just going to drop you off down here and point the way. You can just say you got tired of being on the run with your drug friends and want to turn over a new leaf." I felt more confident now, thinking of that term 'turning over a leaf'. Like a tree shedding its leaves for winter, both fresh and destroyed, to start over. That's what I'd do. That's what I wanted to do. I sighed in content, trying to cover up the nervousness in my gut at seeing everyone again.

Katha pulled into a clearing, and stopped the car. I looked at her, and she said, "We're here." Then she stepped out of the car. I hesitated, but opened the door as well. The car doors shutting sounded louder in the silence of the woods. I moved forward, not being able to see too good, but I could somehow see better than I had before Evanen's Soundstage attack. I stepped away from the car, looking around cautiously. When I stepped far enough, I suddenly noticed there was another car, a limo actually, to the left of the clearing as though trying to hide.

"Katha, I think someone else is-," I started to say, turning my head towards where I believed Katha to be. My words were stopped shortly when her fist swung into the side of my face, sending me straight into blackness before I could feel myself slam into the ground. It was as though I were unconscious for merely seconds before I felt cold, stone hands rubbing into my cheek lightly to bring me back. I felt a bit confused, unsure as to what had just happened, and I tried to pull my head out of those hands gently leading me back into existence. I fluttered my eyes, and winced before groaning at the pain pulsing in my head. I could taste blood in my mouth, and it wasn't pleasant. I tried to move, to see how I was standing when I remembered the ground coming at me, but someone was holding me up to keep me from moving. I blinked again, trying to get my vision back, and was greeted with "Sir" Trenton's face in front of me, identifying his hands as the one on my face.

He was saying something, and I blinked again, concentrating on his words. "...back? There you are. She laid a good one on you, love," He said, and he glared at Katha, who had to be the one holding me up. "You could've just grabbed her instead of knocking her senseless. You've damaged her face." I hoped that damage would keep him away from me.

"Oh, it's not permanent," Katha snapped, tightening her grip on my arms so that I winced again in pain.

I tried to look back, failed due to some idiot's hands on my face, and muttered, "What's going on? I thought you were taking me home?"

Katha scoffed, "Like I'd give you that joy? I'll have you know, this _is_ for Mikel. _You're_ the reason he's dead. And now you are going home, with someone you actually disserve." She shoved me forward, and I stumbled into Trenton's arms. I tried to turn to get away, but he grabbed me by the waist to pull me against him. Then before I could struggle, he reached up to grip my neck almost lovingly, moving my head back to put his mouth to my ear.

"Don't try to escape, my love," Trenton said softly into my ear, and his words latched onto my thoughts, slithering to each idea in my mind like a snake until I could no longer think of a way to try to run away. I gritted my teeth together, feeling as though I would rather stick with Evanen rubbing against me than this guy. Before I could think to call for Evanen with my necklace, Katha reached over and in one snap, it was pulled away from my neck. She held it up to look at it before handing it to Trenton.

"Why do you think _I_ killed Mikel," I asked, near tears.

Katha glared at me. "He died of starvation," she snapped, and I was confused. She continued, though. "Not a natural starvation, you moron. He was drinking dead blood. He'd go to hospitals and other blood supplies to satisfy his thirst, but his body was starving. If you hadn't been around to guilt him to it, he'd still be alive. He'd be miserable, but he wouldn't have died. And it's you're fault." She looked at Trenton. "Don't let her get that necklace. It's a bond to Evanen, and if she gets ahold of it and calls for him, he'll come for her." Then she glared at me again. She looked down to my wrist and reached out to pull the bracelet D.J. had given me off. "I'll be needing this." And then she was turning away to leave. I couldn't believe she'd just thrown me to the dogs... but then I could believe it. She'd probably done it for free, too.

I couldn't handle this anymore.

In an instant, I let myself go limp, accepting death earlier than my natural time. I willed and willed for death to take me at that moment. I wasn't going home, and almost everyone I loved was gone. Now I was stuck with Trenton and I couldn't help but see Dylan, knowing I would end up like her. I didn't want that. So I released my body from my mind, and let my legs buckle under me. Trenton still had ahold of me, so any hope that he'd just look at my body dead on the ground went away as he just peered at me limp in his arms.

"Let's go home, now, love," Trenton said, and I felt a sting of anger with the term 'love'. I would rather be with Evanen, a vampire who had killed my best friend, than with Trenton. He carried me to the limo I had seen before, and another man moved out to open the door. I didn't look at him, knowing anyone's presence at my complete helplessness would make me feel worse than before. But I wished that he would help me, whoever it was. Trenton laid me on one seat before stepping in to sit across me, followed by the man who'd held the door open. I continued to allow my body to be unconnected, seeming lethargic in my inactive state, and staring dazed at nothing, waiting for death to release me. I didn't care that the car had moved, and I still wasn't allowed to even think of ways to escape. So I ignored being alive instead.

"Did you do something to her," I heard an unfamiliar voice ask curiously. It wasn't Trenton's, which told me it must be the second man.

"She's just throwing a tantrum," Trenton stated with what sounded like a smile. I didn't let any expression show. "She's been in the Draele's care for almost five months, and has barely been touched. It's interesting. The first time I spotted her was during the Draele party, moving about a room full of vampires as though they were no different from her.. and with no shoes on. She's interesting." There was a deep silence. I wondered if he knew about Mikel. He couldn't have heard all of it to define me 'untouched'.

"Are you sure it's just an act. She looks half-dead," the other voice asked, sounding not a bit concern but just intrigued.

"She's fine," Trenton reassured.

"Can I touch her," the second voice asked, and I felt sick. I would not like to be touched by strange people. "Just to see."

Trenton seemed to growl protectively. "You can very well keep yourself away from her, Jove. This one is mine, completely." And there was utter silence for what seemed like forever. I dreaded the time when we arrived at Trenton's place, but it didn't seem as much as a feeling of dread as the thought. I figured if I kept this up, I wouldn't ever actually feel what was coming at me. And maybe Trenton would get fed up and kill me quickly. That'd be nice. A nice quick death. And maybe I'd see Kyler, who'd tackle me with joy, and D.J., who would smile shyly. And - last but not least - I could see Mikel, who would wrap me in his arms, finally happy at last. For a moment, I wondered if I'd see Seanel Bartholomew Truit, my long dead little brother. He'd be 12 by now. I wondered what he would have looked like. If I would've hated him, or just would seem I would hate him, but loved him on the inside...

The car slowed down before pulling to a complete stop. For a moment, nobody moved. I assumed they thought I was going to freak out and start attacking them or something of that sort. Instead, I didn't budge. I continued staring absently at nothing, and breathing shallowly so that I could just wait all this mess out. Trenton moved close to me, but I continued to stare through him as he tried to get me to focus on his presence. He trailed his finger over the soreness on my cheek, where Katha left her last present, but I still didn't flinch.

"We're home, love," Trenton said sweetly. I still didn't move out of my lethargic state.


	25. Chapter 25: Omniscient Touch

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

_Omniscient Touch_

I wasn't sure how Trenton was going to take to this newfound inner meditation which involved completely cutting off the connection between my brain and body, leaving me rendered helpless as death. Personally, I didn't really care how he acted, but actually was hoping he'd become bored of me and end my suffering soon after he was finished with me. Maybe being raped, bitten, and tortured wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. Not that I was certain what Trenton wanted with me, but after meeting Dylan, I assumed he couldn't be another Evanen, in which measures would be taken to "win my heart". Too bad he wouldn't have the fun of "breaking me", which clearly was already done -- if I wasn't ever broken.

Trenton gripped me in his arms, and ordered the second man in the limo -- Jove, I think he was called -- to open the door for him. Then Trenton lifted me out as though I were just some blanket he didn't want to get dirty. I didn't help him one bit, allowing my head to lean back, and my arms to dangle where they may. Jove followed behind, flashing into my blurry out-of-it view so that I could see him reach to seemingly touch my face. Before he reached me, Trenton turned to growl at him, and he moved away from me. This confused me, but I didn't show any sign of noticing it.

I didn't take notice to observing where we were, feeling as though my visual observations would be a useful as a person with their eyes crossed. It was still quite dark outside, but it seemed as though I could sense the sun begging to burst into the sky. Jove moved ahead of Trenton to open the front door of the building we were moving to. We moved into the building, and the smell of what I could only describe as clean came to my nose. It was dim in here. Trenton continued to walk forward for what seemed like forever before he turned to confront Jove.

"You may leave," he stated sharply, and he paused.

"Can't I just--," Jove started to say, but Trenton interrupted with a dark, "_Leave_." And there was a moment of hesitation before footsteps were heard moving away from us. Trenton opened a door that led to another dim place, which seemed to be the place he was planning on leaving me. He moved further into the room, and laid me down on an extremely soft bed which held a fuzzy, warm blanket on top that I didn't respond to. For a moment, I thought he was going to just start in on me right then, but he bent over me, moving close to me to breathe in my scent strangely.

"Don't go anywhere, love," Trenton said lightly, and a bit humorously. Then he turned and left the room. Even though I felt relief flow through me at his absence, I continue to lay the way I had been placed. I decided this was best; being absolutely unresponsive until I could die or figure a way out of here. So, figuring Trenton would be waiting to see if I tried to escape -- which I apparently could do seeing as I could now think about it --, I continued to lay on the comfortable bed until I started to drift off. Just then, the door burst open, but instead of Trenton moving in, a good couple of girls entered with small giggles and a vibe of excitement ran through them. The only thing I could think of was a bunch of longtime jailbirds meeting someone new walking into their prison and whispering "fresh meat".

"Well, hello there, Darling," I heard a familiar voice say as though I were a big treat, "Looks as though you and me are going to become sisters at last." I didn't have to look to know Dylan's voice, and the glee behind it. It's strange how a person enjoys seeing someone else go through the same pain as them. I didn't answer of course, but that didn't stop the other girls from pushing around my body as though looking for any broken appendages. Then Dylan's face came into view, with her smile. "Yep, she sure is putting up a good fight... well, not technically, but you know what I mean." She turned her voice to talk to me, "We're going to dress you up for your new master, now. So it'd be easier if you help us out. Okay?" She hesitated, and waited for a response. Then she grabbed my wrist to lift it up above me before letting it go, where if fell straight back down.

"He's not going to like that one bit," a smaller voice sneered, and Dylan frowned as she stared at my blank expression. But then she started hauling me up, with the help of the other girls. I let my head roll back without putting in effort to do anything for them. Then they all started the process of drawing up a bath and stripping me down while trying to keep me from falling into a heap on the floor. It was strange to be bathed by complete strangers, and furthermore strange to be dressed in a very loose, thin dress-like cloth without any garments underneath. With one last effort, they dropped me back onto the bed, where I laid just as lethargic as before.

To add to the outfit, a girl clasped a dark black dog collar around my neck. "That's creepy," another voice said in discontent, "It's like dressing a dead body... or a big doll without the stiffness." There were murmurs of agreement, and they started shuffling out. Dylan remained, staring at me with her head tilted to the side a bit. I would say that was creepy, but then again I'm not saying anything at the moment.

"I kind of hope I'll be seeing you," She said slowly, "But I'm kind of hoping I don't." And she was gone, leaving me back to my depressing loneliness so that I could await the most horror I could imagine. I begged in my head over and over for death to come take me, but nothing happened. I couldn't have some diabetic attack or anything of that sort anymore, so that was no longer dependable. I just wanted things to go back, and I didn't care if that meant back with Evanen, when Mikel was dead and I'd be stuck with nothing. I just wanted to be gone.

The door opened, but I didn't look to see who it was. I didn't have to to know it was Trenton. He slid onto the bed, making his way towards me slowly as though that would either seduce or scare me. When he reached my feet, he continued towards me, trailing his cold hand up my leg an inch at a time. He moved my legs apart at the knees and continued until he was as close as could be. I felt like hyperventilating, vomiting, or just freaking out in any way possible, but I continued to stay calm and dead. He moved his hand over my stomach and to my breast, bending his mouth to my neck below the collar so that he could press his lips against my skin hungrily. I was anticipating him to finish it; to enter me and use me for what he wanted so that he could end this. I just wanted it to be over. But he didn't do anything yet except trail his lips over my neck and to my face.

He gripped my chin lightly, moving my face to look at me. Then he trailed his lips over my cheek and nose before stopping. "When are you going to give up, love," he suddenly asked in a tired voice. I didn't move, of course. I didn't quite know what he meant, nor did I care. He merely stayed above me, waiting for something to happen. "Speak," He snapped, and the order ripped into my thoughts angrily.

"Speak," I responded dully, not even recognizing my own voice.

"Struggle," He ordered even more angrily, and the demand grabbed ahold of my muscles until I was barely moving in a very weak attempt at a struggle that my mind didn't recognize as my own movement. The demand let go, and I was back to no movement. "Speak," He ordered again, gripping my face in his hands, trying to egg any real emotion or action from me.

"Speak," I said dully, and the order still rang in my head so I went into an unenthusiastic, dead chant of, "Speak, speak, speak." Not too long, my slurring made it sound like I was saying "speakuhssspeakuh.." Finally, the order left, and I went just as quiet as before. Now Trenton just hovered above me, seeming unsure what to do and very frustrated.

"I didn't want to do this, but it looks as though I have no use for you, love," Trenton stated, a bit as though a little boy who had dropped his icecream and was plenty disappointed. He gripped my head between his hands, and I wondered if he was going to crush my head. He moved my head side to side as though testing the flexability, and then to the far side smoothly. I knew then that he planned to break my neck. A quick snap, and it'd be over. I closed my eyes slowly, happy for once, but scared at the same time. But he didn't finish what he'd started. Instead, he hesitated, and let go of my head to trace his fingers over my closed eyes. Crap, I'd shown I was still in here. Now I expected him to continue to mutilate me, but he instead moved off the bed and stood there for a moment.

He reached across and grabbed my wrists before pulling me almost boredly across the bed until I fell to the floor painfully. I held my breath, but then let it go back to normal, fighting to keep the bond between my mind and my body severed. Trenton continued to pull my body out of the room without concern for my well-being as I was being scraped against the carpet and knicked by odd things protruding from the door and walls. He kept a good grip on my wrists and dragged my limp body further down a dim hall until he stopped at another room, where he let go of me so that he could open the door. I thunked my head against the floor, but kept still until he grabbed one of my wrists to drag me into the new room as though I really were a doll. I wondered if this was Jove he was taking me to, deciding to let him do what he wanted with me after all. But instead, I heard the sound of girls talking quietly to each other as I was dragged to the middle of the room and dropped again.

"Watch this one," Trenton said to his slave girls, which included Dylan, "If she starts acting normal again, report it and I'll be back." He paused to look at me, and turned to leave. Once he was gone, the girls continued to stay quiet. I could feel their eyes on me. For a moment, I figured they'd go back to talking and just leave me here, but I heard footsteps approach me.

"Did he get her," a girl asked curiously.

Dylan's face came into view, and she started looking at me skin just as curiously. Then she turned to look at the other girls with a surprised look upon her face. "No. Not even a bite," she said, astonished before looking at me, "Well, damn, darling. You might just be smarter than I thought. No wonder the famous Evanen couldn't let you out of his claws." And there was a burst of giggles as they moved to swamp me. They helped each other pull me up and set me against a beanie chair so that I could see everything around me. I wondered if this was what it was like to be a cripple.

They acted as though I were some magical being; someone to idol. Dylan couldn't stop talking about how she saw the look on Evanen's face when Trenton had merely held my hand. 'Such jealousy,' she said in glee. Then she went on to tell how she had spotted me kissing a different vampire... and I remembered her look after Trenton had come back and Mikel had left. The look as though I were candy. She had seen Mikel, then. I continued to let them talk all they wanted, whilst I looked into oblivion as always with nothing showing on my face physically.

"Let me tell you about where you are," Dylan suddenly said, and I found it slightly funny how she talked to me as though I wasn't acting as though I was brain dead. It was as if she knew I was just fine, and hearing everything. "This is the Cat Room. We're the slaves of Sir Trenton who do everything from pleasing Sir Trenton himself to being a comfort to his guests. He'll usually just let them come in here to pick, but you won't have to worry because your collar is a nice, dark black. This means that you're all for Sir Trenton and no one else." I noticed right then that everyone had blood red collars on, even Dylan, though the last time I had seen her at Evanen's house, she had had a black collar on as well.

The girls went right on talking and talking and talking until I actually did focus them out because they were chatting as though they had the best lives when really they were vampire sluts. They were handed out to strangers for their fun, and no doubt they hadn't chose this. Then again, I wondered if they had. Why would someone choose this? It was a disturbing thought, and I preferred to ignore it. It wasn't too long before a random man came in, and the girls crawled towards him as though he were a treat. I felt disgusted, but I didn't move. I continued my lethargic ways, and I wasn't bothered. At least my collar was worth something.

After awhile, the girls got bored with me and moved off to their own business. Dylan waited until they all left, and moved to keep herself in my blurry view. She seemed to want to speak about something, but it would be pointless because I wasn't going to say anything back. "I know that your Evanen didn't give you up," Dylan suddenly admitted, "He never gets so obsessed about a human. In fact, I don't think he found much about a human to be excited about. So I know he didn't just throw you at Sir Trenton like everyone thinks he did." She hesitated, looking around, and I waited to see what else she had to say.

"Did he talk to you about The Rising," Dylan asked me curiously. Pointless, that question was, because I wasn't going to jump out for nothing. She didn't seem to mind, though she was seriously curious about it. "I'm not completely sure what it's all about, but the whole vampire world is buzzing about it. Apparently it's really important; something to do with power." I had heard this from Mikel already. Dylan waited as though willing me to fill in the gaps to that story. The truth was, I wasn't sure what the Rising was completely about either.

"Look, he's apparently suppose to be handing something away, but I'm not sure what it is. What I was sure about, by how everyone was freaking about you, he was planning on giving it to you," She continued, pausing once again. I felt my heartbeat start up a notch, remembering Mikel's words. Passing power on to me by turning me to a vampire, which was out of the question because if I was set to stay human before, now that Mikel was dead, I was _dead_ set to stay human. It was the most important thing to him; that I'd become old and die properly. And now that he was gone, the last thing I'd want would be to disappoint his spirit. If he has a spirit. I didn't want to think about if he didn't have a spirit. If vampires were automatically doomed.

"Be careful if you make it out of here alive," Dylan said cautiously, "Because I have no doubt that you will get out. Especially with Evanen Draele as your guardian. I'm surprised Sir Trenton hasn't locked you away so no vampire could ever spot you. So you be careful if you get out because the last thing vampires want is for the Rising to go wrong, and their future to be changed in a way they don't want it to be." She smiled again with that smile that said she was more mature and omniscient than me. Which she probably was, but just the fact that she acted just like some older sibling would towards a child sibling annoyed me. I let it go.

Trenton's slaves were allowed to leave to do anything, such as use the bathroom and things of that sort, but their main spot was right in the Cat Room. Dylan usually dragged me along to the bathroom every once in a while as though I were a cripple, and practically forced me to use it. I still didn't show any sign of going back to normal. Not until I was gone. The girls found it interesting to treat me as a doll; bathing and dressing me, putting on makeup, and pampering my hair and nails. I let them do what they wanted. They would bring food as well, and try to get me to eat. That's where I drew the line, though. I refused to eat, and the hunger ate at my stomach, but I didn't want to make my life any more sufferable in its length than it already was. Dylan noticed this, and tried to force food down my throat, but I kept it from going down my throat every time. Sometimes a bit would get by, but that wasn't near enough what Dylan wanted me to eat. Drinking was a lot harder to prevent, seeing as liquid could go down one pipe or the other with Dylan behind the cup. I drank, which made her happy, but not enough because as the days went by, my bones were starting to become noticeable.

~...~

Life was so dull, I just couldn't wait until my body gave up on my lack of food. Luckily enough, this no reaction thing was getting really easy to do, so that I started to believe I would actually not know how to move if I wanted to. Or how to talk. I felt as though I forgot what my voice sounded like. The plus side was that Trenton would come in to hear about how I was as dead as ever, and he would just leave. I assumed he was waiting until I gave up, but I wasn't planning on it. It wasn't as though he could try to do a Kate-taming technique from 'The Taming Of The Shrew'. I already wasn't eating and I don't know what sleep I get. It seemed as though I was in nothing but sleep.

Somehow, I found all this humorous. I had actually been taken by a vampire who didn't care about harming an innocent person, and I was still getting out of it. So I was basically happy, awaiting my end. And at the moment, I had been sitting back listlessly against my normal beanie bag while some girl was doing my nails out of boredom. The others were basically snoozing or humming. Some were talking mildly, not really up to doing anything. I wondered how shocked they'd be if I had gotten up and started doing my nails myself, humming away. Then again, they'd just tell Trenton and I'd be right back to a larger mess than I was already in.

The door to the Cat Room opened, and all the girls looked up expectantly. I didn't, as usual, seeing as I never was one who had to bother with that stuff. But then the girl doing my nails scrambled away from me rapidly, and I felt the presence of someone who bent down in front of me. This confused me a bit, but I assumed it was Trenton. Then from a bit further away, not close enough to be the person in front of me, I heard Trenton say, "Go on and touch her already. See what's wrong with her."

"Don't rush me," I heard a familiar man say, and recognized it as Jove, the man from the car. Great, now Trenton had actually given me up to be touched by some creepy Jove dude. I seethed on the inside with such rage at the fact that I was still alive for this. Then I nearly flinched when I felt a strong, cold hand of a vampire lightly touch the side of my face almost hesitatingly. I heard Jove chuckle as he put his other hand on the other side of my head so that he could carefully turn my head to face him. At his touch, I felt a sudden rush of energy that boiled in my guts, and I accidently focused directly on his eyes. I hadn't seen so clearly in a long time.

"Well, hello, Darling," he said, as though Dylan had possesed him, "Let's see what going on with our dear Hailence." His hair was cut short, messy, and as black as night. There was a pale cast over his flawless skin. He had a beautiful, circular face with an even nose and pale lips. His eyes were bright in entertainment, and I couldn't tear my gaze from the solid green color of his stare. It made me feel awake, which was plain strange. I felt an urge to reach up and grip his hands on my face, and to kiss his pale lips. And then all those urges were torn from me when Mikel's name screeched into my mind. Automatically, I felt a wave of utter guilt and disgust with myself. I allowed myself to shove away the energy in my gut and cut the connection between my mind and body again. I felt suddenly safer in my constant state of helplessness.

Jove smiled charmingly, and I didn't respond with a dazed smile as I believed he thought I would. He stroked the sides of my head pleasantly, and it reminded me of stroking a dog behind its ears. He didn't seem to want to let go, and Trenton seemed to be getting impatient. "Well," Trenton asked expectantly. Jove seemed startled that Trenton was there.. that he himself was there. He looked back at Trenton before looking at me. He leaned my head back slowly so I wouldn't break my neck in my non-active state by letting it fall back by itself. Then he practically had to rip his hands away as though he were connected to me.

"First of all, she's not as untouched as you like to think she is," Jove stated, smirking at Trenton as though he found this humorous, "In fact, she had herself a nice lover. A Draele.. not Evanen, but one named Mikel. Turns out he died not too long ago, which is probably a good reason why she's hellbent to kill herself eventually. Second, she's useless to you. She's not going to just hop up and be better any time soon. And third.. " He looked at me with a glint in his eyes. "I'd like to keep her to myself. I enjoy her thoughts." I didn't like how it seemed as though the only question with vampires was 'who gets to have the human'. It wasn't as if I was some property. But still, Jove moved closer towards me, reaching out to touch me again. I could assume that somehow he could either see or hear my thoughts by touching me, and this made me nervous because no matter how dead I acted on the outside, I was a roar of life on the inside. I wondered if Evanen could do this same thing, and why he wouldn't if he could have.

Before Jove could touch me, Trenton snatched his wrist. "What did I say before you came in here," he sneered as though scolding a child. "This one is mine. You just do your job, tell me if she really is messed up or pretending, and leave her alone." He let go of Jove's wrist as though he burned it, but it probably had more to do with the sudden expression of knowledge upon Jove's face. After a moment, Jove turned his gaze from Trenton -- who looked suddenly nervous -- and looked at me.

"You'd be amazed how special she isn't," Jove stated, and I would've felt offended if I hadn't felt the same way. "Just because the carrier to our glowing, vampiric future seems to be enamored of her, doesn't actually mean she's something to go insane about. If you keep thinking that way, the only conclusion you'll reach is disappointment and burned time." I waited to see if anything else would happen, but they both just hauled out of the Cat Room. I was starting to go into deep thought over this last remark (specifically the part of "the carrier to our glowing, vampiric future") when I was suddenly surrounded by the other female species I had momentarily forgotten were here.

"Ooooh, first Evanen Draele, then Sir Trenton, and now Jove Silverstone," a girl said in amazement as though this were the best gossip in high school. I could never tell who exactly was who except for Dylan, who seemed to be brooding elsewhere. Apparently something didn't fit well in her stomach. But the other girls seemed absolutely ecstatic over this previous event.

"I'd love for Silverstone to want me," another girl stated airily. It sickened me.

"Mhmm, if only his little trick didn't get in the way," said whoever. I really didn't care anymore, but I assumed this trick was the thought hearing thing. "One touch with any of us, he flinches and flees. Especially with Dylan." The girl went into a whisper, and I could imagine her looking towards Dylan. "Man, she wanted nothing more but Silverstone, and he got a glimpse of her mind. Now she's like a leper to him."

Then a girl started poking me. "Wonder what made her mind so appealing to him," she asked curiously, and with a bit of jealousy. They proceded to try to ask me questions, and to get a response out of me. This was completely ridiculous seeing as I had gone this long without sign of life, so why would the presence of another vampire who now was probably going to start stalking me wake me up? I felt like slapping all of them until they went back into the hole they came from. But I refrained, and soon enough they all left.

One girl made her way to me. Her aura seeped with something that reminded me a bit of how Katha felt around me. "Well, aren't you a lucky one," Dylan asked, no longer sounding so sweet. Great. Another one who doesn't like me on my list. This was just what I needed. I suddenly felt a sharp pain of a pinch on my arm. She continued to tighten her pinching grip on my skin, and it was really hard not to start wincing. I felt the urge to just yell out that I didn't care to have any other vampire bothering me in my life so she had nothing to worry about, but she let go. "You'd better hurry up and die." Dylan moved back to her spot to brood some more until another guest came in to use her.

When I slept that night, I was having unmeaningful dreams of Mikel, who I was trying not to think about when I was awake so my subconscious decided to throw him at me in spite. It wasn't as though Mikel did anything meaningful, and most of the dreams were hard to remember anyways. Mostly it consisted of me doing some sort of activity, trying to find something, or just talking about nothing. Then Mikel would show up at some point, and I never acted as though it was odd that a dead person was talking to me. I couldn't remember what he'd say, but it usually was just suggestions or an answer to a weird question. Sometimes he'd just be in the dream doing nothing, but I'd forget he was dead in real life. It was a major disappointment when I woke up to remember that he wasn't around anymore. It would take all of me not to just burst into tears, but sometimes I couldn't keep the tears from slithering down my cheek. I missed Mikel. It felt like I would forever miss Mikel.


	26. Chapter 26: The Call

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

_The Call_

If I thought being stuck in Evanen's presence was boring, being stuck in an unactive state within the Cat Room was ten times worse. Dylan had basically abandoned any hope with me. Or she hated me now. Either way, now the other girls were the ones who dragged me to the bathroom, tried to feed me, bathe me, get liquids down my throat, and pamper me the best as they could without Dylan's help. Eventually I knew that they would give up, and I would finally be left to die in peace. If they had just left me alone in the first place, I would've been dead by now. Then Mikel's absence wouldn't bother me anymore. Unless it did. I wouldn't know seeing as I've never died. Not completely.

Trenton's little friend, Jove, liked to sneak his way into the Cat Room and do whatever it is that entertains him when it came to my mind. Everytime he pressed his fingers over my skin, I felt bare and the boiling feeling in my stomach that made things sharper and more alive ached as loud as ever. I had a theory that by his having access to my innermost thoughts, he was also allowing me access to his mind. Just not as sharp and clear as an access as he had with me. He didn't seem to have the ability to communicate with me through thoughts like Mikel, though, but Mikel didn't have such an ability of "mind-reading" as he did. I didn't much like this intrusion, but I wasn't going to do much about it.

Jove was holding my limp hand within his, smirking about something he was seeing/hearing/reading when I saw Dylan bound into the room, obviously in a more cheerful mood than ever. Normally, I would've ignored that, but when she walked clearly across my view as though to show something off, I saw a flash of something extremely familiar around her neck. I blinked sharply, ignoring Jove who had noticed my sudden shock, to clear my sight as I followed Dylan's neck with my eyes. At once I recognized the silver rose, probably so cold against her skin that no matter how much she'd try to warm it, it wouldn't change; like the skin of a vampire. That was the necklace Evanen had given me. His protection over me at all times. One call to him and he'd be there.

By impulse, I shifted myself so that I was straighter, moving my head to follow Dylan as she moved towards the girls who had noticed the necklace around her as well. It was the first time I moved actively in what felt like forever, and my muscles seemed shocked, but I ignored it. I had my eyes glued to the necklace; my escape. Dylan sat among the girls and smiled self-consciously.

"Where did you get that _gorgeous_ necklace," a girl asked, and I recognized the voice but just now realized she had red hair. All the girls were beautiful in fact, but were dressed so promiscuously that one would overlook the innocent beauty and notice the harlots within them. I shifted furthermore, drawing my legs towards me, no longer even aware of Jove still gripping my now clenched fist.

"Sir Trenton gave it as a gift for being such a good servant to him," Dylan stated in a sing-song voice, obviously proud of her prize. She looked down and touched it, "It's like his skin. It never gets warm. But he said if I was to wear it that I was never to say... well, one of the Draele's name. Not Mikel or Drewdon, but you know who." She ducked her head delicately as though the necklace was too much of an honor for her to handle. I felt a flutter of excitement within me, and was contemplating on how to attack Dylan whilst she chatted away with the other girls. Then I felt a slight tug on my hand and a small clearing of a throat for attention that wouldn't attract the other girls' curiousity.

I nearly started, but held it in. Then I turned to look at Jove, who was clearly happy about something. "Well, look who's acting just fine right now," Jove said quietly, with a slight amusement in his voice. Now I was brought back to Earth in one fatal crash, aware that he had been holding my hand the whole time I had been jogged out of my death state and would now be planning on telling Trenton that I was just fine and dandy and planning to escape. I had failed due to my excitement. I suck. Jove chuckled a bit, looking towards Dylan. I thought about what would be the perfect way to beg him not to give me up, but he continued to talk quietly. "Now, I believe you have a perfect chance to get the Hell out of here, and I think you should take it. But I wouldn't dive on or attack her in any way. I think the shock of your living actively will be enough for just a glimsp of her prize, which I think she has no idea who it originally belonged to. Go on, now." He let go of my hand, and waited for me to get up. I felt so nervous at the prospect of escape that I had trouble thinking about it.

I hesitated, and then croaked, "Thanks." He nodded in acceptance, and turned to leave the room. I looked towards Dylan, rubbing my legs, and feeling as though I needed the best stretch a person can give. I started to get up then, but felt a wave of dizziness. I almost felt sick, probably from starvation, but I had to get up. I _had_ to. This would be my ownly chance. I shoved myself forward, landing on all fours, and decided that would be the best I could do. I started crawling towards Dylan and the girls. It took a moment, but when one saw me, there was a screech of amazement.

"Oh. My. God," the redhead yelled in excitement, "She lives!!" I crawled next to Dylan, who had an expression of shock and confusion upon her face. I sat next to her, and smiled as bright as I could. Everyone was throwing questions at me like bullets, but I ignored them, trying to concentrate on how exactly to get my hand on that necklace without Dylan freaking out. No doubt she was majorly stronger than me at the moment, so one flick would probably drop me. I decided to take a more subtle approach.

"I just wanted to say sorry, Dylan," I said sincerely, "I don't like Jove, nor do I like it when vampires seem to be intrigued by me. It's not very lovely attention, actually. So if I could, I would totally throw Jove at you and end all this now. Please don't hate me for such a silly thing that isn't even my fault." I widened my eyes, which are probably scary due to my lack of fat in between my skin and bones. She physically hesitated, while the other girls said 'awww' and I was suddenly reminded of that same 'awww' coming from a car of friends the night of the Soundstage concert. 'Shut up, you dorks,' I had responded. I wondered what they were doing; besides Kyler. Though, I did wonder what she was doing as well.

"What made you jump up now," Dylan asked curiously, obviously deciding to forgive me without actually saying so.

"I figured enough was enough," I responded shortly, and looked at her necklace. "Ooooh, that's beautiful! Where'd you get it?!" Automatically Dylan was once again in her state of honor and pride as she restated what I had overheard. I smiled brightly, pretending to be happy with her. "It feels like Trenton's skin? Wow, can I see?" There was a pause of tension within the group, and I wondered if that was too blunt. But I continued to look at it with what looked like wonder but it was actually the fear that was pumping through me as I expected her to say no and for me to be doomed forever.

But then she said, "Sure." And she pulled it from around her neck before holding it out. I held my hand out, palm up, and waited for it. It was like time had stopped for a moment as she started to lower it onto my palm. I didn't notice the door opening behind me as the familiar, cool metal rested against the palm of my hand. The moment this happened, I clasped my hand shut around the metal and opened my mouth before anyone could react.

"EVANE-," I screamed, and was interupted by a strong hand slamming against the side of my face. I dropped the necklace, crashing completely to the floor in weakness, but didn't black out this time. I pushed myself up a bit, moving my jaw around to test if it was ripped from my face (it was still there), and coughed out blood onto the carpet. Then before I could do anything else, the same strong hands tightened furiously around a mass of my hair and started to pull me out of the room. I screamed in pain, reaching up to grab those hands in fear that my hair was being pulled from my scalp. The girls were pulling away from me in the distance as I was dragged, screaming, down the hall.

"You stupid bitch," Trenton snarled as he opened his bedroom door and threw me into the room. I gasped in pain, gripping my head, and backing up on the ground. I tried to remember if I'd finished calling for Evanen or not. That was the only thing that mattered; that he had heard and would be here to at least destroy Trenton after I died. I was absolutely sure I was dead now. But now I wasn't sure if I had finished calling his name. I started to, so does that count? Does it count if you don't finish it? _Does it_? I was panicking, and I tried to crawl my way away from Trenton as fast as I could. "You stupid bitch," Trenton repeated. Oddly, I wondered what happened to 'love'. This was knocked out of my head as he grabbed my hair from behind, swung me around, and threw me into the frame of his bed.

I gasped in pain, reaching up to hold my face which was now bleeding just above my left eyebrow. "You think you could get away after all this time," he growled, and I whimpered in anticipation and he hauled me to my knees. Then in one swift move, he smashed the back of his hand against the side of my face, and I fell to the ground once again. This time, darkness did wash over, but was tortuous enough to release its grip as I was conscious four seconds later. I groaned, completely afraid that I couldn't really feel my face anymore. What if my face was sunken in and I was still alive? It felt like it was sunken in, but when I touched it, my face was still intact... just more bloody than usually. Not to mention a new gash. Before I could further check my own vitals, Trenton kicked me in the stomach and onto my back. Now I would drown in my blood, which is better than being beaten to death.

He strattled me, ripped the collar from my neck furiously, and lifted his fist above him in preparation for a blow I was sure would smash my brain into the floor. And then he was being dragged off of me. I started to shove myself up, but the world spun and I fell back to the floor. I blinked and looked over to see what could be either the most horrible or the most wonderful thing I could possibly see at the moment. Evanen had one arm holding Trenton with amazing strength, and was using his other hand to rip Trenton's head to the side. With his neck bare, Evanen bit down furiously, and was now draining every drop of life within him as though he weren't another vampire but a human. And with that none-too-pleasant but relieving sight, darkness decided to drown me completely.

~...~

I figured when I would finally merge back into consciousness, I would be greeted with a slightly happy sight of Evanen, who would be so happy to see me but so worried about what I'd been through, and I would be delighted by mountains of treats and happy-making objects. That's what you would expect when a man who wished to be an appendage of yourself finally has you back in his life after a good length of absence, right? Well, apparently I was severely wrong, for when I woke up, there was no such greeting.

I opened my eyes, repressing the urge to groan and moan about the severe pressure on my head, and trying not to think how dangerous it was that I had lost consciousness after a massive head trauma induced by Trenton's fist. For a moment, I was completely confused of my whereabouts, but after a good minute of staring around, I realized I was in the back seat of a small car. If I wasn't much mistaken, this could have been the same car I had first been in when being taken into the Draele family household so many months ago. I touched my face, which was now caked with dry blood, but still there. Then I pushed myself to sitting upright before having to hold onto the car door in order to stop the world from swirling dangerously. It was really hard to focus, and I wanted to go back to sleep. I forced myself to stay seated before leaning on the car door, with the passenger seat in front of me.

For a moment, I stayed like this. Then I realized that if the car was moving, someone was driving it. I looked in the direction of the drivers seat to see the bleach blonde hair of Evanen. I smiled in relief, and said, "Evanen, I'm so glad you heard my call. I was--" Evanen flashed a glance my way, but instead of that happy, concerned expression I was expecting, he seemed to send a message that practically screamed 'Die, bitch'. It was indeed very creepy, and I didn't like it at all.

He turned back to look at the road before saying, "I hope you had a great vacation, Hailence, but you should know it's over now." I hesitated, a feeling in my gut of nervousness and dread. I opened my mouth to respond questioningly, but paused before closing my mouth. I frowned, looking down at my body as though it was saying or knowing something I wasn't. Then I started thinking to myself what that comment could possibly mean. The only thing I could think was that Katha said something that was probably the opposite of the truth, and it struck Evanen somewhere it hurt. That or Evanen already did the Rising thing and I was no longer an interest to him. Wouldn't I have heard from someone that the oh-so-wonderful Rising event had occured during my slavery? I wasn't too sure.

We pulled into the driveway of the familiar Draele house, and stopped. Evanen opened his door and exited the car before slamming it shut behind him with such rage that I jumped. My heart was pounding in my throat and head, making my whole cranial area from shoulders up feel like a pulsing appendage no longer necessary for survival. Almost like an abnormally large pimple. I watched Evanen stand outside his door for a moment, thinking of ways I could explain to him how none of this was my fault. Except for the part when I trusted Katha. Maybe that's why he was angry... I ran off with Katha. Plus, he probably pieced together that Mikel and I were a thing. I figured he would have gotten over that over my absence, but now I had to think of ways to convince him that my so-called 'vacation' didn't actually have to be over because I've done worse than being a bit too trusting. Besides, Katha's a vampire.. vampires are gooood at deceiving.

One moment, I was watching Evanen cautiously standing outside his door. The next moment, my door was wrench open so quickly that I could barely gasp in startlement before Evanen had ahold of my upper arm to pull me out of the car. He didn't look at me, but continued to drag me along towards the house. This was really hard for me to do, seeing as the world was spinning, my feet seemed to be everywhere, and I couldn't keep up with him at all. Not to mention that this was the most effort in movement I'd made in a good length of time. I felt like the tinman combined with the scarecrow from _The Wizard Of Oz_. Someone get me oil for Christ sake.

When we entered the house, Katha and Cecilian seemed to have been in a middle of a conversation near the entrance, and looked at us with a bit of curiousity. Katha seemed pleased, and Cecilian seemed a bit distasteful. Probably because I looked horrible... to both of their emotions. Evanen continued past them without pausing, dragging me up the stairs (it was like those stairs in that upside-down painting, where they were on the wall, ceiling, and everywhere), and finally moving into his room, where he slung me to the floor before shutting the door behind him. I landed with a sickening thud, and groaned. Everything hurt at this moment.

There was a moment of silence, so I thought maybe Evanen had finally calmed down or something. I pushed myself up, holding my head, and turned to look up at Evanen, who was glaring at me so angrily that it was almost as if I had killed his mother. If she were alive... and he loved her. I was now having trouble breathing, completely blank of what to say to this expression. I settled with an innocent, shaky, "What's wrong?"

Before I barely got the words out, he snarled, "You _know_ what you've done. I've looked _everywhere_ for you!" I felt as though he was going to hit me, and already in pain enough, I raised my hands to block my face with a whimper. When nothing came, I carefully opened my eyes to look and found Evanen bent down directly in front of me, seething. "I should just kill you after all. You obviously don't want to be here anyways and you never will." He bit out at me like an animal, showing his sharp fangs that were now directed at my blood, and I fell back in fear. I scrambled to back as far away as I could from him until a wall was blocking me from moving further. He continued to follow me, a growl of rage deep in his throat. When I couldn't move further, I moved my head away, pressing it as close to wall as was possible. I was no longer breathing, sure this was it for me.

Evanen grabbed my jaw roughly, yanking my head towards him before trailing his tongue over the caked blood on the side of my face hungrily. The moment he lifted his tongue from my face, I didn't feel so much scared as sickened. I could've used a wet rag, seriously. He laughed evily at the expression on my face before letting go just as roughly as before. I automatically wiped gently at my face, trying to mind the bruises while trying to rid my face skin of Evanen's saliva. When I looked up, Evanen was sitting on the bed, no longer facing me, but looking down at his hands with his back to me. I figured this must be an odd way to scare someone before killing them. It actually confused me, but I stayed right in my spot. Time crawled by slowly, tick by tock, and I waited for Evanen to pop off the bed and rid of my life already. I'd hope for a quick death, but knowing Evanen, he'd pick opening my stomach to reveal my insides or decapitation before a fast snap or something.

It didn't seem like he was going to do anything but sit there, staring at his hands. Apparently he had expressed his rage, and he was finished. Once I convinced myself I wasn't going to die, I made my way towards the bed. I had to find out just why he was so angry at me to turn to such anger. I pulled myself onto the bed, feeling more in my body since my consciousness, and crawled slowly towards the unmoving Evanen. When I reached him, I hesitated, holding my hand out just an inch from his body. "Evanen," I moved closer cautiously, "Evanen, why are you so mad at me?" The moment I rested my hand on the back of his neck carefully, he turned around slowly so as to not startle me, and lightly grabbed my wrist to kiss the back of my hand. I wondered for a moment if this was a trick or forgiveness, and hesitated.

"You left me without a trace, except for your bracelet in front of the door. I looked everywhere, but you hadn't gone back to your dad's house or anything. Katha said she heard that you were off with some other vampire, in love with him instead. I hated losing you," Evanen admitted sadly, obviously believing all this was still true, and I frowned. He moved closer to me, a glint in his eyes, "But it's okay, Hailence. You called for me... you wanted me to take you back after all. I hoped you would, and now I know a way you can stay with me forever."

I saw where this was going, and started to pull away. Evanen had a sudden grip around my waist, his hand on my lower back, to hold me close to him. "Evanen, I don't--," I started, and he interupted me by pressing his lips over mine lightly, just long enough to erase any word from my lips.

"Stay with me," Evanen insisted, but not with the attaching order that would bind me to obey, "Let me turn you, and you can stay with me forever." It amazed me how different of an opinion Evanen had than Mikel. He moved to my neck, kissing it in anticipation. My heart jumped to my throat, and it was getting harder to think properly. It was like becoming drunk, and all my thoughts were buzzing, slowly getting dimmer and dimmer. Then I felt the tip of his fangs on my skin and freaked.

"NO," I yelled in fear, struggling furiously, and Evanen removed his mouth from my neck, leaning his forehead against the bare skin instead as though he himself was having trouble thinking as well. He moaned, breathing deeply, and I wondered for a moment if vampires had the same instinct as preditor animals. The one that urged them all the more to attack their prey when they were afraid, ran, or struggled. Automatically, I froze, and pleaded with what God that wasn't listening to my begging to not have this happen to me. After a moment, Evanen lifted his head to glare at me once again, but this time it was more like a kid who didn't get what he wanted rather than the rage itself.

"You would rather stay with Mikel or run away to Sir Trenton that be with me," Evanen stated rather than asked. I suddenly realized what lie Katha had stuck in his mind. The bracelet in front of the door was no doubt the one she had taken from me before letting Trenton have me. 'I'll be needing this,' she had said. Yeah, to plant it as evidence that I ran away on my own accord without her help. Then when Evanen saw the bracelet, he assumed I ran off, no doubt because Mikel was dead and there was no longer a reason to be here. And then Katha told him that I probably ran off with another vampire, and what other vampire could I have met than those at his party. So he probably was looking for me that way, and then when I called him and he found me at Trenton's place, he assumed I was there. But wouldn't let my poor physical state show how I didn't actually want to be there? Apparently not to Evanen. But now that I knew what he thought, I put my hands on both sides of his head, trailing my fingers over his facial skin -- over his eyes and temples -- as though trying to rub sense into his brain.

"Evanen, you know that Katha was the one who convinced me to leave, right? That she tricked me by saying she'd help me escape, and ended up handing me over to Trenton spitefully? You know that, right," I asked, continuing to pet his face almost lovingly, and putting my forehead against his. I was getting extremely tired of all this conflict. I felt Evanen's jaw tighten angrily under the palms of my hands.

"What do you mean," Evanen asked through his gritted teeth.

"Katha said she'd take me back home; that I didn't need to be here anymore. And I believed her, so I went with her. Then before we reached town, she stopped and Trenton was there with his own car. And Katha handed me over to him, taking my bracelet for a reason that I now know was to make you think I had left on my own accord. And I was stuck at Trenton's place, his own slave, this whole time. They had taken away the necklace you gave me so that I wouldn't call you, but I got ahold of it," I responded tearfully.

He reached up to grab my hands, and I felt as though I swayed within my own body. I closed my eyes sleepily, and Evanen now gripped my face in his hands carefully. "Are you feeling okay," He asked, and I now heard the concern I had been expecting in the first place. I think I nodded, but I probably didn't.

"I'm just a bit tired," I admitted, and he laid me down on the bed carefully.

"We're going to get Katha, all right," Evanen stated bitterly, "We're going to show her that this was the last straw." I didn't respond, and just allowed myself to fall into the melatonin supply that was easing me to sleep. I went into the darkness with a song in my head. _Mr. Sandman, won't you bring me a dream..._ I didn't even notice as Evanen pulled the silver necklace from his pocket, and put the cold rose back around my neck. He had already started to plan his revenge against Katha.


	27. Chapter 27: Life Lost Early

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

_Life Lost Early_

I had a new reason to believe I was going to die. See, I suddenly couldn't wake up anymore, and not only was I stuck in subconciousness, but I had a fit of fever that made my sleep very uncomfortable. And not only was I ill, but it was completely strange that I was ill. I figured I had voided myself of all illness the moment I survived Evanen's first attack on me, changing my own DNA by adding his. I hadn't felt even a sniffle since then, which was odd with my medical history of illness. Now I was lost in what I could only remember as severely uncomfortable darkness. I could only hope that it would end pretty fast, seeing as it was almost as if I didn't know I was sick within my own mind. It felt like I had always been that way; hot, uncomfortable, and ultimately suffering forever.

Everything about me hurt, but it wasn't as though it was my throat, head, or stomach that ached. It was as though the pain was in my blood, rushing to crash their fire into everything; muscles, skin, and especially my intestinal area. But blood hurting didn't make sense seeing as blood itself doesn't have nerve endings. Just like the brain itself can't actually hurt because it has no nerve endings. It _is_ the nerve receiver, so during headaches, it was the area surrounding the brain that hurt. Or mere pressure. Headaches always confused me. Either way, I couldn't see how blood could hurt, so I could only assume that in whatever way I was hurting, it was as though my blood was the thing in pain.

When I was in the depth of my sudden rush of illness, I started hallucinating. I must have been hallucinating because at some point, I felt a small hand on my forehead, and when I looked, a barely familiar face frowned down at me with worry. For some reason, this very moment was familiar, as though I had lived it before. I hesitated before croaking, "Mom?" And then there was no one there. So it went on like this, with hallucinations which somehow held a blurry vision of my mom, whom I hadn't seen since I was five -- an age I barely remember what-so-ever -- until I had begun to start hallucinating about a boy who would lay next to me and talk about everything. This boy was the most confusing because he had my dad's blue eyes, destined to become an aged grey, but he had the same hair which I had before I'd been turned partial albino to the doctors. This boy was the most confusing because... well, I assumed he was my dead brother, which made less sense than my mother being there.

Finally, there came a point when I felt a relief of pressure within my blood, and everything seemed a bit easier. Not better, but easier, as if my body had stopped fighting and I was preparing to go into a better place. So when I had opened my eyes this time, the vision of Evanen hovering close to me had to be real as opposed to Seanel conversing about oranges and how I had written in my journal that I liked oranges. He could have been trying to give me one, but I had declined in belief that afterlife food should be kept at bay until I entered the afterlife. Now Evanen smiled when he saw that I was looking at him, but it seemed like a pained smile. A smile that meant nothing was fine but he wanted me to think everything was fine, which is ridiculous seeing as I would obviously know nothing is fine.

He had ahold of my face delicately, and I tried to reach for his hands but my arms were lost somewhere. "Let me change you now," Evanen said quietly, coaxingly. He wasn't requesting this as a way to keep me forever with him, but in a more desperate way. "Just say yes, and all this will end. You'll be better, and I'll take care of you. You won't be like Mikel, I promise. You'll feel so much better... stronger. Please, Hailence." I was partially glad that he was going to wait for my permission before forcing me into that type of life.

I smiled lightly before whispering, "I'm fine. No need." And I was back into my world of darkness. I wouldn't know how long it was until I could finally wake up and stay awake, but it was a glorious time when I could finally open my eyes to a dim room and not feel myself pulled back into subconsciousness. I was extremely tired, though, and was shocked by how damp and clammy I felt. I looked down at my arm due to a small tug to see someone had hooked me to two IVs, and I took notice to a nasogastric tube which was protruding from my nostril, taped to stay still, and distributing a creamy brown substance to my stomach steadily. I did not enjoy this one because I could feel the tube when I swallowed. I reached up to my nose as though to pull it out, but noticed some white thing clamped to the tip of my finger. I followed to cord to a machine which had my heart rate on it, the thud of my heart sending the line to a small dip and raise, not too much of a dip that it seemed extremely weak to me.

It was almost like being in a hospital, except I was still in Evanen's bed. I looked up to follow the IVs to two bags hanging down a rack. One had a clear liquid in it, which I assumed was water, and the other was a thick, red liquid with the words 'A Positive' plastered on it. I suddenly felt a wave of deja-vu at this, remembering when I had woken up in the hospital with much the same things injected into my body after Evanen's first attack. I had turned then to see my father, and now I turned to the same spot as though in hope, but he wasn't there this time. No one was there, in fact, and I looked around for a hint as to what had caused my previous ill state. The only difference I could see was a chart on the dresser next to a silver tray with simple things such as a small flashlight, a thermometer, and a few other small objects that I couldn't quite see.

Finally, someone knocked and the door opened, and a familiar entrance of a woman with red hair and light freckles which matched her eyes almost raised my spirits. She saw me, and apparently something on my face erased her somber expression and she smiled that trustworthy smile of ease. "Hello, I'm Dr. Reeth, remember," she asked, sounding a bit pleased, and of course I remembered the human doctor who had seen me here once before for stitches. I nodded, not really in the mood to talk with this tube in my throat. Evanen followed behind her, a smile brightening his face suddenly at my consciousness. In a blink of an eye, literally, he was on the bed beside me.

"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Are you in pain? Can you see? Do you feel sick, still? Are you okay," He asked pressing his hand to my forehead, as though he of all non-people would know what temperature he should feel to know I was normal. I swatted at his hands, irritated slightly before breaking into a smile.

"I'm feeling much better," I admitted, "Just tired." And then Dr. Reeth came to the bedside with the tray, moving it on the bedside table. She pulled out the flashlight, and I remembered to keep my urge to smash it like I had with Dr. Wells under control. She flashed it through my eyes twice, and smiled in a bit of relief. And then she put the thermometer in my mouth. After this, she wrote something down on the chart before checking my blood pressure. Then she started on the questions.

"Do you feel dizzy at all," she asked. Nope. "How's your vision? Blurry," she asked. Nope, clear enough. And it went on from there until she was satisfied. Amazingly, Evanen didn't interupt her, but everytime she touched me, he continued with the peircing eyes of a hawk, protecting its property. Dr. Reeth finally sat back, and I knew she was finished.

"What happened," I asked cautiously, looking towards Evanen carefully for answers.

Dr. Reeth smiled as though to console me, and I wasn't so sure about myself anymore. "I'm sorry," She laid a hand lightly on my upper arm, leaning closer sincerely, "But you have miscarried. Apparently your blood supply was.." Evanen suddenly cut her off with a sharp look. I was now in utter shock, and completely confused.

"I'll tell her, thanks," Evanen said, "You can leave. I think she'll be fine, now." And Dr. Reeth looked a bit humiliated, but apparently she was being paid good money. She left pretty quickly, just like last time. I wondered if she knew this house was full of vampires. But not as much as I wondered what had actually happened because I assumed it must be more about vampirism instead of a.. well... a miscarriage didn't make sense. I turned to Evanen for an answer, and he looked a bit stern and gloomy.

"What really happened," I asked in disbelief.

Evanen seemed to hesitate, but said, "I know about you and Mikel." This was completely random and off the wall, and I frowned, confused as to what this had to do with my illness. He continued, though, "I know that you two were sneaking around. I could smell him on you, which is why I was trying to keep you in my sight all the time, which apparently didn't work because you two got together. I know about that, Hailence." I looked down sheepishly, not actually embarrassed about Mikel and me because I loved him... still loved him. But the way Evanen said it was as though I had cheated or done the ultimate sin or something.

I felt as though I should apologize, but instead I inquired, "What does that have to do with--"

"Dr. Reeth wasn't lying," Evanen interupted, "You miscarried." And now I was angry at Evanen for lying to me.

"That's not possible," I snapped.

"It is," Evanen laughed cruelly, "Well, the getting pregnant part is, but the miscarrying part is a lot harder to do, but you did both! See, as long as one of the partners are living humans, hybrid breeding is possible. It's hard to do usually, but some people are more acceptable to the vampire blood and can give life to a half human half vampire. So Mikel left something of him behind in you, but it died, which is harder than getting pregnant because the baby _is_ half vampire after all." I looked at him with shock, everything frozen within me. I was still too busy over the fact that I was pregnant with Mikel's baby... a child of the combination of both Mikel and me. And then I started to reach the part of the word 'miscarriage'.

"Apparently, when you were trying to kill yourself by starvation, you weren't just killing yourself. What human blood the baby did have died off while your body was struggling to keep you alive. The vampire blood itself from Mikel helped it live for awhile, but then when you called for me and Sir Trenton got ahold of you... he finished the baby off by throwing you around," Evanen said darkly, "Which I believe would have been a damn lucky thing for you because those half breeds get the worse of it in this life. Plus its hell to raise those things. Trust me, I've seen one. But when this infant died, what vampire blood that was being exchanged between you two was cut off and your body couldn't handle it anymore. It went haywire, and when your human blood was dying off, the enhancements I gave you by biting you started to battle in, but nothing can help that if I don't give you my blood. Which I tried to get you to let me do, but you were determined to keep your humanity." He scoffed, and stopped talking.

I reached to my stomach, which wasn't as tight as before the feeding tube when I had been starving, suddenly feeling as though I was going to throw up. It reminded me of Seanel, and I realized this was another life lost so early that I would now wonder as I always had with Seanel how it would have turned out. Only this one didn't have a name or a sex or anything. This one didn't even get to breathe. I looked at Evanen, feeling empty suddenly, "A baby... Mikel's?" He hesitated.

"Yes," He said slowly.

"And it's gone because of me," I asked. Evanen didn't answer this, something probably screaming at him that I was going through another 'human' thing and that to say anything more would disrupt my weird 'human' way and ultimately not help him in the long run. It didn't matter though because I knew already. I killed the only thing that would have kept Mikel with me forever. In my selfishness, I had starved a small life to death, and prevented life. There was a difference between my mother and I, though, because while she lost Seanel to natural causes, I had killed mine. I killed someone again. "No," I whispered, and I rolled away from Evanen before staring at the distant wall. Then I started crying quietly. It wasn't too long before Evanen was gone.

By allowing myself to think, I merely made things worse. Oh, how much of a disappointment I would be to Mikel. He would be absolutely distraught if he had been alive to find I had killed our child. And then, how disappointing a mother I was. I failed before I could start. I couldn't stop wondering who our child would have been. What would I have named him or her? What color eyes would he or she have? I could imagine a boy with sandy blonde and a soft brown eyes, his small hands reaching to my face, and a gleeful smile on his. I could see a girl with soft, wavy hair, dancing in circles like I used to in a light, white dress. But now I could see nothing. There was nothing.

~...~

I had the IVs and feeding tube removed... not a very pleasant experience as ever. Evanen didn't mention Mikel or our could have been child since the first news. I stopped trying to think about it, feeling a physical pain at what could have been. Still, even when I didn't want to think of the lost infant, I could still feel an emptiness within me, as though what peice of Mikel I had safely harbored in me was gone as well. It was torturable, so I took to thinking of other things. This was a hard feat, seeing as the only things I could think of was revenge and blame. Basically, it all went to Katha, seeing as if I focused on Evanen, life would be extremely uncomfortable, and if I tried to pin it all on me -- which I did already in self-blame -- I would become an utter depressed mess. There was no point of living that. So I loved thinking of all the ways to harm Katha, while dreaming of nothing but a lost infant that I couldn't quite see or touch.

Evanen was laying beside me, and I was actually facing him. I stared bluntly at him, mulling recent events over. "Evanen," I said quietly, not feeling the urge to raise my voice lately. He was looking directly back at me so it wasn't as though I had to try hard to get his attention. "Can vampires read thoughts?" It was somewhat similiar to what I had asked before when Mikel had first entered my thoughts to help me escape and had lost control.

"Well, I figure you'd know that already," Evanen said, "Seeing as they've been in your head before."

I sighed, "I don't mean read thoughts as in how you and others go in my mind and control my thoughts. I mean _read _thoughts, like know what I know. Because it doesn't seem like any of you do that." Evanen stared at me for a moment as though trying to figure out the curiousity behind this.

"Well, Mikel could somewhat do it," Evanen said carefully, as though mentioning Mikel was a touchy subject, "He couldn't actually know everything a person knew, but the main thought in their mind. Only when he tried, as well. To hear the main thought a person is having, you have to concentrate really hard, and not even I could do a full mind reading.. as you call it. It's much easier to control the mind." And he smiled sharkly.

I frowned, "But there are vampires who can do it, right."

"What exactly do you mean," Evanen said evasively.

"I mean," I hesitated, "I mean like... are there vampires out there who can know every thought in your mind.. with like a touch."

Automatically, Evanen sat up sharply. "Did he touch you? He didn't... did he," he asked desperately.

"Who," I asked, still trying to maintain the innocent curiousity.

"Jove Silverstone," Evanen stated, and I knew I gave it away at the startlement upon my face. He groaned, "Trenton let him touch you?" I hesitated, wondering what that could possibly mean, before nodding slowly. It was like the time when I admitted to my dad that I had touched the poison ivy plant, and he was groaning about my action but at a loss for anything to do seeing as it was already done. Evanen was muttering to himself, and he pulled my face closer to his before resting his forehead against mine. A familiar presence of him appeared through my mind, but not for long because he backed up. "He's been everywhere." That sounded a bit intimate.

"What's it mean... when he touches me," I asked slowly, not sure I wanted to know.

Evanen frowned at me before saying, "Usually if he just touches for a glimpse, it's not too bad. He'd just sense you when you're around him, and there's not much of a connection. But it looks as though he kept with you a good length of time, which isn't a good thing in itself because that means that he decided you were a person among few which he wouldn't mind a connection with. Now he knows where you are, and he'll have a mental connection as well that will allow him to hear whatever he wants from you. That in itself isn't good because now you're a danger to whoever you're around. He could find anything he wants from you."

For a moment, I didn't like this thought. And then I remembered how Jove's touch brought such pleasant energy and how he had let me go without stopping me. Now I knew why, seeing as he didn't actually let me go completely. With this in my mind, I suddenly on impulse thought with a burst of concentration: _Hi Jove_. I waited a moment, but there was no response. "So are there many vampires like Jove," I asked curiously. Evanen seemed to be over the initial shock, but he no longer seemed pleased as he laid back down.

"Actually, no, and I wouldn't be happy with his kind of power any day," He responded bitterly.

"What does that mean," I inquired.

"He has the ultimate access to anyones mind, vampire and human alike, but he doesn't have any other mind-connected power. He doesn't have the power to control humans like most vampires do. Plus, it wouldn't be too enjoyable to have such access to everyone's thoughts with a touch. Imagine being stuck in that predicament. Always having to wear gloves and avoid touching people in the off chance of knowing everything you don't want to know about a person," Evanen stated, and he didn't look as though he'd like that at all. I couldn't help but to remember what had been said about Dylan when Jove had touched her. How he avoided her basically. I wondered what she harbored behind those eyes that repelled someone so much.

A wandering thought suddenly fleeted to my mind as I wondered if Jove had known that I was pregnant. In that second, I looked back to every action he had done with his expressions and words to see if there was any indication that he had known. I couldn't think of any, but surely he must have. Unless he'd literally had to touch a person, babies included, in order to hear anything from them. Then again, the baby could have not even been developed enough to even have a thought. Still, the possibility that he knew and didn't warn me seethed into me until I was boiling with rage. I now had another person to add to my list of blame.

I looked at Evanen again. "Are there any vampires who can read your mind and control it... like read it completely, like Jove could, but control it as well," I asked. He raked through his mind as though searching for any such vampires in his memory.

"Not that I know of," He responded.

"Well, what about those who can read your thoughts like Jove could without actual physical contact," I waited patiently.

"Never heard of one.. in fact, I've never actually known anyone besides Silverstone who knew how to do what he does," Evanen stated shortly, "Which is why I knew if you were asking about that, there would be only one person you could have met." I wondered what it was about vampires that allowed them that type of power to utterly burst through someones personal boundaries. It had to be some sort of predator thing against humans because most things vampires had in power were used to better effectively survive being the top of the food chain. But then if vampires were the predator, and they had so many powers against us, there must be a way humans can better protect themselves. Usually the prey learn to adapt around certain things predators can do to get them, right?

"Is there any way you can block it," I asked suddenly, wondering if it was even worth asking such a question seeing as Evanen would probably deny any type of positive answer just so he'd keep an upper hand on me. But he looked unsure as to my question, so I better phrased it, "Well, if vampires can read and control the mind, is there any way the person whose mind is being... invaded can basically block it? Prevent it? So that the vampire can't read or control their mind?" Evanen now looked a bit uncertain, but I knew this time it was because he didn't know if he should answer it. All he had to do is strickly say 'no' and there'd be nothing I could do about it.

"Yes, there is," Evanen admitted, and he smiled as though he'd just got an idea. "And I think I'll teach it to you for future reference."

I hesitated, "You'd teach it to me?"

"Sure," He said, "It'd be perfect. Then I wouldn't have to worry as much about any other people messing with your head."

"But aren't you worried that you won't... you know... be able to dominate me by--"

"By controlling you," Evanen asked, interupting me gleefully. "If you haven't noticed, I don't try to do much of that anyway." I thought about that, realizing that all those recent mind control had come from others rather than Evanen, whose last order had been to be quiet when I was screaming. It wasn't a nice order, actually, but he hadn't been forcing me to do much else. So I smiled in return to Evanen.

"Okay, teach me," I requested, as though the knowledge would just suddenly be there. Evanen seemed oddly happy about this, and there was a glint in his eyes that told me this couldn't be too good of a lesson to learn if he was this joyful in the process. So I frowned slowly. "Wait, what exactly do I have to do to learn it because I'm not so sure I want to learn it anyway." Evanen sat up, pulling me up to sitting position as well.

"Oh, you're going to learn, and it's not too bad," He said, crossing his legs indian style so that I did the same. I was still uncertain, but he seemed at ease about all this. "The thing about mind control is that between the vampire and the human, the power behind the order versus the effect is antagonistic. This basically means that, say, if there's something a vampires wants a human to do, and the human wants to do it as well, then the power behind the order doesn't have to be strong in order to get the wanted effect. Now, if there's an order that the vampire wants the human to do, but the human doesn't want to do it, then the power behind the order has to be stronger to get the wanted effect. Then there's different ammounts of power behind the order you must obtain in order to get the effect, so the only way you could possibly get the exact ammount needed would be to know what the human is thinking, which you now know isn't possible."

"Because there's only mind control or mind reading, no full mixing," I stated shortly, "So what does this have to do with blocking it if all you're telling me is the vampire's need to use control rather than the human's power to block it?" Evanen looked a bit irritated at my impatience, but he could handle it well enough.

"Well, what I'm telling you is that you'll be experiencing the same problem as vampires when trying to block it, meaning that you'll never completely know the power behind the order and only know how much you do or don't want to do the order," Evanen stated, and I waited for more. "So if you're ordered to do something that you want to do, you'll have more problems blocking that than blocking those orders which you don't want to do at all. And therefore, in this training, I'll be the one ordering you, first lightly powered orders that I'm sure you won't want to do. And what you'll do is struggle against the want to ever do what is ordered. Okay? It's all behind not wanting to do any of it, and then pushing the order away with your own mind." It sounded easy enough, so I nodded, and clamped my hands on my knees firmly in preparation.

Evanen leaned in closer to me, and said in that familiar voice which climbed into my thoughts to latch onto every thought I had, "Kiss me." This startled me completely so that I didn't have time to even concentrate against this order. So in the next second my lips and his were together. The order let go of my thoughts shortly, and I pulled back, putting my hand to cover my mouth.

"Not fair," I said bitterly, "I wasn't ready." Evanen just smiled, obviously pleased.

"Concentrate," He insisted, "You have to concentrate on not wanting to do anything I order." And I didn't want to do anything he ordered. Nothing, even if that included breathing, because he ordered it. I glared at him bitterly, and took a deep breath before concentrating real hard on preparing for my thoughts to be invaded.

"Laugh," Evanen ordered lightly, and the order started latching onto my thoughts lazily. I clamped my mouth shut, holding my breath, and concentrated on pushing the order off my thoughts so determinely that there was a good length of hesitation before a laugh suddenly escaped through my lips dryly. The order let go, and I groaned. Evanen smirked. "You'll get it eventually, Hailence." And I waited for the next order, hoping that he was right because I hated not being able to have my own choice in my own actions.


	28. Chapter 28: Revenge

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

_Revenge_

I'm not sure what it was, but learning against mind orders was as though I were doing it for a cause. It was as though I was preparing myself for a major mind battle, but I didn't know with who. I spent weeks, everyday using my day with Evanen to fight against his orders, which were slowly becoming more powerful and eventually were turning to things I wanted to do. Still, I fought against each one until it would no longer take a good few minutes to break off the order, but seconds. Even Evanen seemed to find these lessons tiring in how he had to eventually throw all his might into it, but I still had to fight it off. I lost a lot, but Evanen seemed really proud in how I had turned out.

"What's the thing you want most to do right now," Evanen asked me, reaching the end of the lesson as he could do.

I gulped uncertainly, thinking about myself at the moment. Seriously, I wasn't too sure what I wanted except that I was really tired of fighting against his orders, so I sighed. "I want to stop fighting you off," I responded shortly, and he smiled.

"Interesting," He said, "Because I want to stop ordering you. Which means that in this order, I'll have to put all my might into ordering you to stop fighting me because I don't want to even order you anymore, and you'll have to put all your might into fighting off that order because you want to give up." I laughed at this situation, but figured it'd be a good enough end to the lessons. But of course that last test lasted forever, which meant we'd keep doing it over and over until I got the concept completely down. That itself seemed long enough of a lesson that it took forever to reach the end of all the training against mind control. I didn't want to think anymore after this.

When Evanen was satisfied, he started just ordering me to do things regularly and off the wall to see if I had the training burned into my soul. Apparently I did because now I could just shrug the order off shortly without much thinking put into it. I wondered if I could ignore any order coming from the other household, such as Drewdon. I had only met him once, but his way of ordering didn't seem too nice. I wondered how surprised he'd be if he tried to tell me to "Be Quiet" or to "Calm Down" and I just told him to shove it. I admit, I wouldn't, seeing as his eyes still haunted me whenever I thought about him. Creepy yellow eyes. I felt like shuddering.

Evanen had gotten me skittles one day, and I was leaning against the corner of the bed post, popping them into my mouth joyfully. I loved skittles, but especially the orange ones. He was on the opposite side of the bed, amazingly away from me, and was looking at a blue skittle suspiciously. I figured he was trying to figure out what exactly it was about skittles that made me so happy, and he placed it on his tongue slowly. Then he just left it in his mouth, as thought trying to taste something not there.

I hesitated, "Do vampires not taste food?" Evanen swallowed the skittle absently, no longer trying to do whatever it was he was trying to do before looking at me just as absently. There was another odd thing about his behavior that day. He seemed out of it, but he was looking at me either way. For a moment, I just stared back, waiting for an answer, which came after a good length of time.

"Well, your human food tastes weird," Evanen stated slowly, "All I can taste is the mass amounts of sugar, fake flavoring, and some random bits of stuff placed into it which makes it taste completely horrible. It's like eating plastic. Why do you like it so much?" I hesitated, looking at the skittle in my hand in confusion.

"Maybe it's because you can taste everything clearly, and that includes every piece of extra stuff in it you're not suppose to taste," I said slowly, before looking up at him, "Maybe you can't taste it all together like we can, but every part of it separately, which I must state probably wouldn't taste too good." I assumed it would be better to ask a vampire who had once been human about food differences because the only thing I could get out of Evanen is that it was weird, seeing as he never had tasted food like humans had. I started to say something else when I realized that Evanen hadn't responded to my assumption. I paused, peering at Evanen as though something in his presense would tell me why he was so quiet.

"What are you thinking about," I asked, only realizing right after I said this that it was the most girly, girlfriend/boyfriend question that existed. I had refused so long ago to ask people that question, and to just stick with 'Waddup' or something. It was too late now, but luckily Evanen would be the last living thing to know about anything to do with relationships. He seemed to settle something within his head, and he moved his way over to sit beside me as though anticipating something great to happen. I just looked at him before finally breaking, "What?"

"What do you think about a gift? Something that will help you feel better about all that's happened to you," Evanen asked cryptically. I thought about what type of gift would make me feel better about what all had happened lately, but nothing actually came to my head. I didn't even want Mikel to come back in fear of his utter disappointment in me. So instead of thinking about what I would think would make me feel better, I thought about what Evanen would think would make me feel better. Probably Mikel's finger or something of that sort.

"What is it," I asked relunctantly, willing to deny whatever gift Evanen had in mind.

"A surprise," Evanen stated, and he smiled into the distance of his thought of pleasing me. I stared at him suspiciously as he lightly crushed skittles within his fingertips absently. For a moment, I wished I had the same power as Jove because at that moment, I would have latched onto Evanen's face and forced him to let me know what he was thinking. His so-called "gifts" only left awkwardness and painful nervousness.

"I don't like surprises," I warned him, when really I usually do like surprises, but there's a difference between Evanen surprises and pleasant surprises. I just told a little bit of a white lie so as to avoid what would definitely be unpleasant.

"We'll see," He responded shortly. The moment after he said that, there was a low rumble outside of what must have been thunder. I paused, irked at the perfect timing, but also questioning my mental state to trust if it was real. After a moment, there was another small rumble, and I perked up. I waited for a moment until I could hear another rumble before freaking.

"Oooooh, rain," I said excitedly. And then I shoved Evanen. "Rain. It's raining, right?" I remembered that once when it was so rainy that the sky was a blinding grey, I had wrote a poem about rainy days. If I'm not much mistaken, it was basically about how rainy days flooded my thoughts until I was utterly depressed, which clearly told how much I didn't enjoy them. In fact, the last lines had been something like 'And I cry when grey cries'. But the thing was, I hadn't seen rain in so long.

Evanen seemed startled at my sudden bouncy state. "Yes. And?" I jumped off the bed and ran towards the door, but in a flash, Evanen was blocking it. "Where do you think you're going?" He said it as though the rain brought some voodoo over humans and made us go perform some foul duty or something. I tried to get past him, but he didn't move out of the way.

"It's raining," I said, now becoming angry, "Move it, buster, I want to go look." After a moment, I added, "You can come." And we were suddenly going down the stairs in a rush. Well, I was in a rush, and I burst out the front door and straight into the pouring rain. It was actually turning pretty cold, but I didn't really care much. I looked up into the dark sky, not able to actually see the rain, but feeling it pour over me. And then for cliche means, I twirled in a circle.

"What month is it," I asked Evanen curiously.

He wasn't in the rain, but standing at the door boredly. "November... just began not too long ago. November 5th, thursday night. It's almost the 6th." He looked around, and I was thinking about my birthday, which was coming up pretty soon. I'd be turning eighteen around December 20th, which I never found too good of a thing because it was only five days before christmas, and therefore instead of getting more presents, my dad tended to combine my Christmas with my birthday. I started shivering, and when I turned to say something to Evanen, he was no longer in front of the door. I turned a full circle, but he wasn't anywhere. I hesitated.

When I looked off to the distance, now clear to run, I looked around. Nobody was around me, so it looked like a pretty easy escape. But now I was confused as to why Evanen had left me out here, when I could have easily just bounded off without a second thought. Then again, he probably knew me more than I figured he would because I just turned around and headed back into the house. When I looked around, nobody was there, so I moved towards the kitchen. There was orange juice in the refridgerator, which was pretty sweet, and I sat down to drink it at the counter. It merely took a couple of seconds before I noticed the hidden door on the wall, and I was no longer thirsty anymore.

I got up and decided to head back to the room. It was still oddly dead in this house, but then I figured it was because Mikel was gone and everyone else was probably out hunting. When I reached the bedroom door, I hesitated for some reason, as though something was telling me not to go in there. But after a moment, I pushed the door open.

The first thing I saw was the silver dagger I had used to kill D.J. on a desk, laying on top of a cloth easily. But that wasn't as odd as when I looked towards the bed to see Evanen holding Katha down on the floor, with his knee on the middle of her back and her hands held together at her wrists by his grip. Automatically, I started to turn to run away because this did not look like a pleasant scene, but Evanen looked towards me and smiled as though he had been expecting me.

"Here she is," Evanen told Katha with a sneer, and I hesitated. "Shut the door, Hailence." I wasn't sure what was happening, but I figured Katha was probably up to something and got caught. I shut the door slowly before turning back towards them.

"What's going on," I asked Evanen slowly.

"Revenge," Evanen stated, and Katha broke into gleeful laughter. I was still a bit confused, but he continued, "It's your gift. You finally get to get back at Katha here for all she's done to you." I looked at Katha, who was still hooting away even though I couldn't see how she could get air in her lungs to laugh. Then I looked at the silver dagger on the desk, and put the two together.

"I don't know about this," I said, backing up uncertainly. Katha laughed even harder than before, but Evanen didn't loosen her one bit. Apparently, he did know, and he was certain that I was going to get my revenge today.

"Hailence, just think about it," Evanen merely said, and I looked at Katha again. I thought back to the first time I heard Katha's voice. 'What the hell are you doing?' She had hated me from the start, claiming jealousy. I thought about her sob story of being a leper, and her chasing me through a window. Then I remember her attempt to get Mikel to feed off of me when she heard him refer to all the ways I was beautiful to him. I clearly went over all her glares, her attempts to kill me, and finally got to the one that hurt the most. The one where she tricked me, handed me to Trenton, and basically killed what flesh of Mikel I could have had. And so I wondered, what harm could come in getting a bit of revenge? I had thought about it plenty enough, so why not give Katha what she deserved?

I moved towards the silver dagger, picking it up in my hand. The one I had to kill my own friend with because of Katha. I turned, and Evanen had pulled Katha to her knees, keeping a good hold of her hands behind her back. Katha cackled at the sight of the silver dagger, and said, "Oh, like you'd actually try to hurt me? Puh-lease, you wouldn't do it if I was tearing you to pieces." And she laughed again. I took her in, her green eyes gleaming, her blonde hair a bit of a mess due to Evanen, and her thick, red lips broke into a smile. I smiled in return.

"I killed D.J., so what makes you think I wouldn't kill you," I asked curiously, just as though I was asking Evanen or Mikel about a certain power vampires had that I didn't quite understand. Katha let her laughter fade a bit until she was back to glaring at me. It was a drastic change, and it made my heart start to pound, but I didn't move back any. Instead, I looked at Evanen, who nodded for me to continue. I moved towards Katha.

"Stop," Katha ordered, the first order that I had ever heard from her that splashed into my thoughts dominately. I repelled them easily, though, shocked myself by how easy it had been. And then I continued towards her. She frowned, no longer sure of herself, "I said _stop_." I shoved the order away, easier than most of Evanen's orders because there wasn't enough power behind them and I didn't want to stop. Soon I was standing directly in front of her.

"That's not going to work," I stated shortly. Katha looked at me in disbelief, and I lifted the knife to look at it. "It's weird how you vampires are so strong, but something so simple can hurt just by touch. I mean, you can stand touching a stove top, but you can't handle silver. Hmm." And I pressed the flat side of the blade against Katha's cheek. Automatically, she burst into a most horrible scream that made me withdraw and back up. I hadn't expected so much pain to come from Katha's mouth, and it scared me. Why did I have to do this anyway?

"Finish it," Evanen said, holding Katha up so that she wouldn't get away, which she was clearly trying to do. Only this time she no longer seemed to be an evil, playful bitch. Instead, her eyes were sharp with such rage, and she sneered in such anger that it was clear to see her fangs sharp in her mouth. The thing I focused on the most was the wound on her cheek, where the silver had burned through her skin to show the flesh underneath. It made me feel sick just to look at it.

"I don't think I want to," I responded to Evanen's order, stepping back even more.

"I'm going to _kill _you," Katha roared, struggling even more to reach me and finish the thing she'd wanted to do from the start.

"Kill her," Evanen ordered, putting all his might into containing her. I looked at the silver dagger still in my hand, now completely certain I couldn't do it. It wasn't as though I didn't want revenge, but the thought of me going around killing everyone in the name of revenge felt wrong. What if I ended up as bad as a vampire? I couldn't do that.

"Evanen, I can't," I said in a pleading voice, as though I was the one being killed.

"Do it," he ordered again.

"No," I snapped, and started to drop the weapon. Katha went into another one of those cackles of hers that always scared me, and it seemed to last forever, as though she had found me the most hilarious joke she'd seen. And then she was talking instead of Evanen.

"Go on, kill me," Katha said, and she burst into more laughter before she could continue. It was a kind of laughter that brought Kyler to my mind, when she would just burst at such a small thing. She'd always referred to it as 'breaking her giggle box', and it was an infectuous state because not too long later, I would start laughing just as hard. Only there was something more about Katha's laugh, as though she were about to do something horrible to me by having me kill her. "Do it!"

"Do it," Evanen agreed again.

Before I could deny this time, Katha stopped laughing to glare at me. She reminded me of the exorcist girl, except in a prettier state besides her cheek. "Your D.J. friend was so sweet," Katha said darkly, confusing me as to why she would compliment D.J. "Sooo sweet, and thick. It was almost like chocolate, except with blood." And she ran her tongue over her top lip deliberately before bursting out into more evil laughter.

"Shut up," I yelled, "Shut up!"

She continued to laugh, adding, "You should have heard him." And she raised her voice mockingly, "Where's Hailence? Where's Hailence? Oh she was just the most beautiful girl and I miss her soooo much..." Katha cackled at the memory while I seethed. All I wanted to do was shut her up. I would prefer to live with Cecilian forever over being around Katha for an hour.

"Shut up," I growled.

"And he was sooo sad when he found out all the things Evanen was doing to you," Katha hooted.

"I said, shut up," I snarled, getting quieter, but tightening my grip on the dagger.

"And he was sooo scared of aaaalll the vampires in the house," she continued.

"Shut your mouth," I whispered.

"Which is why it was so enjoyable to watch him wriggle and scream when I changed him," Katha sneered, and that was it. I swung the dagger around with such rage, and it slit across Katha's neck without a struggle. It took only a minute for me to realize that all I had done was shut her up, and that she was still alive. She widened her eyes in such shock that I could suddenly see what I assumed would be the human girl she had been. Then before anything else could be done, I thrusted the dagger forward, slicing it through her chest and into her heart. Immediately after, I let go of the dagger, backing up in shock. Part of the reason of my shock was because I had actually killed Katha after all the times I imagined doing it, but I believed the real shock of it was because Katha's skin started peeling away, followed by her flesh, until the only thing left was a heap of her skeleton and the clothes surrounding them. There was no ash or anything, which I didn't exactly think would occur after D.J. died anyway.

Evanen, who I had nearly forgotten was there, bent down and started stuffing Katha's bones, clothes included, into a bag in such a blunt way that it was offending. But I wasn't going to say anything. I killed Katha, after all, so what would I say? 'Show a bit of respect, Evanen'? It was a bit too late for that. I sat down on the ground instead, watching Evanen swipe what was left of Katha up before disappearing out the door. I continued to stare at the spot Katha had been. There was no evidence left except for a bit of blood that had spilled through her clothes that was barely visible, and the dagger that Evanen hadn't picked up yet. Once again, it's blade was clear of all blood. There was an object who didn't have to worry about shedding any leaves of its past away. It was just as fresh and new as if it hadn't ever been through anything.

Meanwhile, there I was, looking down at my hands to find Katha's blood had escaped onto my skin, unable to have the priviledge to be free of anything I had done. A person could spend their whole life wishing for the chance to shake off what past experience staining their life. I could think about wanting to be a tree forever, but all I'd be doing is sitting in this room, waiting for winter so that everything could just go away and leave me as new as the silver blade. Except it'd be a wait that lasts forever because people like me never get that chance. All we're left to do is dream about it, wait and wait, until the only thing we're left doing is bleeding for a winter that will never come.

Evanen interupted my thoughts by appearing in front of me, gripping my upper arms. I burrowed my eyebrows, pulling my eyes from the blood on my skin relunctantly, to look at him. "Go take a shower," he ordered, which I thought was a very unappropriate solution to my problem, but then I wasn't thinking too straight any longer. "I need the clothes you're wearing." This was more odd than the previous insistance, so I continued to frown in confusion. Evanen shook my shoulder lightly before saying, "Go take a shower to get rid of the mess on you, and give me your clothes so I can get rid of them." Oh.

I nodded, and stood up to go take a shower. I took noticed to the equipment Evanen had with him, which included fuel and a lighter. He had already started lightly sprinkling the fuel on top of the blood stain on the carpet. Apparently just cleaning it up would be enough, but then these were vampires I was thinking about. So I ignored it, and went to the bathroom. I didn't even look into the mirror because I didn't want to know what I looked like. Instead, I just stripped, covered myself with a towel, and held my clothes out the door for Evanen to take. Then, I proceeded to wash away the evidence which I couldn't get rid of in my mind.

In the middle of taking a shower, a disturbing thought came to my mind. This was suppose to be revenge against Katha, but I wondered if she had known that I would no longer find it as revenge once I'd done it. What if she had been laughing because she knew she would probably give me nightmares for the rest of my life, which was as good as destroying my life as she could get? Maybe I hadn't won revenge against her at all, but helped her hatred in me for nothing. The only thing I could think of with this whole mess was one word: useless.


	29. Chapter 29: Unexpected Visitors

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

_Unexpected Visitors_

The weather was starting to cool down considerably in the three days following Katha's death. It usually follows a certain pattern, which it was seeming to do at the moment. This included it becoming chilly in October before giving a whole new meaning of cold in November so that we could all be prepared for the snow to fall into our lives in December. The sad times were when the snow failed to fall before Christmas for a cool holiday, but snow was snow either way. Still, now that it was more into November, the chill was settling in real good, which caused me problems seeing as I was stuck in a house with vampires. See, I soon found out that vampires never really noticed the cold. It also turned out that there were a few things vampires did to trick humans during this type of weather. For example, when Evanen went hunting during the cold, he put on a coat that he stated was very annoying, but was necessary so that he wouldn't concern those humans who were shivering in their boots.

Meanwhile, I was stuck curled up under a blanket for warmth because their resistance to the cold left the house as cold inside as it was outside. The only thing that was bothering me the most was the question of the people who were stuck in the dungeons, where they had no blanket to curl under. Evanen was quick to reassure me on that, though, with a simple, "Oh, we kill off all of them before it gets cold and they get sick. Sick people are not tasty." I wasn't kidding. He said it just like that, as though that would make me "feel better" about their habits, when killing off those people would mean that they would go hunting more. Still, this was also how I found out that the winter season was the time that they moved elsewhere. I assumed it was because of the fact that they did hunt more.

At the moment, I wasn't in too much of a need to be too warm due to the fact that Evanen had decided to fetch a small heater for the room. Instead, I was just wearing the most fuzziest coat I'd ever seen that Evanen had also decided to get as well. I was sitting at the edge of the bed, not too far from the charred area on the carpet that replaced what used to be Katha's blood. I looked about slowly, noticing that it appeared they weren't in any hurry to start moving so far.

I turned to look at Evanen, who had ignored Katha's spot by pretending it was just another place on the floor. He was leaning against the wall across from me absently staring into space. "So why haven't you started moving yet," I asked him, "It's winter after all." What I was really wondering is what Cecilian was doing about Katha's mysterious disappearance, but we'd made an agreement to pretend nothing had happened. It was apparently clear that my killing Katha wasn't going to go over well with anyone.

"The Rising is suppose to be sometime this month," Evanen responded. I had forgotten about "The Rising", seeing as I barely knew much enough about it to be worried over it.

"Does that mean you're turning 20 soon," I asked curiously.

"November 20th," Evanen stated.

"Weird. So if your birthday was the 16th, would the Rising have been on your 16th birthday or something," I joked.

"Exactly," Evanen confirmed. I waited for any sign that he was kidding, but when none came, I shrugged. Then I continued to stare at the blackened spot on the ground. It wasn't big or very noticeable against the black carpet, but I still couldn't stop looking at it.

"Well, if you weren't going to turn 20 for another couple of months, why'd they throw a party so early," I asked without looking up.

"I assume it's because Cecilian felt as though by celebrating it earlier, then it would come earlier," He responded dully, apparently not too fond of the party for some reason. It's not like he knew that's where Mikel had stated his love for me or anything. Then again, Evanen had been acting weird lately. He almost seemed a bit jumpy about something, and it sort of concerned me because I feared it had something to do with Katha. She apparently was more bothersome dead to us than alive. It seemed as though she was right in being the one laughing in triumph, seeing as that same laughter would not disappear from my conscience. Then again, it could be because the Rising was coming closer day by day. Not that I would know why it was so important, seeing as no one had told me.

I suddenly had an urge to beat the answer out of Evanen, but decided to try to startle him by a blunt question. And so I asked bluntly, "What's The Rising exactly?" There was a clear moment of hesitation, which told me my trick was not taking the effect of being off-handed as I had hoped it would. I didn't try to fix it or anything, but assumed he wouldn't tell. Instead, I just continued to stare at the spot on the carpet. Then I was startled by Evanen's sudden presence beside me on the bed. I looked up and over to him, and he was looking at me as though he had made a huge decision.

"I don't know why I haven't told you already," Evanen said as-a-matter-of-factly, and I felt a sudden mix of excitement and dread. Then there was doubt as well because I didn't actually think he would tell me. Still, he continued, "There's this story that had been going on for centuries and centuries before I was even born. It was about this belief that the key to true immortality would be found by a conceived vampire of two humans who carried it in his blood, but only when it reached the age of its birthday. It was a nice story, actually, but nobody actually believed it because nobody can be conceived a vampire. They can be born a human, halfbreed, or turned into a halfbreed in the uterus, but not conceived a full blown vampire."

I smiled like a kid, "Except for you, right?"

"Right," He responded, "When I was born from two humans, they checked my mother to see if maybe she'd been turned while pregnant with me, but there was no reason why I'd been vampire. So Drewdon, who knew the story like the back of his hand, snatched me up to try to hide me, but it didn't work for too long. Word got around, and all everybody wanted to know was when and how. So Drewdon figured out that the phrase 'the age of its birthday' meant what you said. It should happen on my 20th birthday because I was born on the 20th. As for the how, they figured that it would be passed by drinking my blood."

"What is it," I asked, wanting specifically the knowledge behind the term 'power.'

He hesitated, "Well, by the key to true immortality, we assumed it meant complete immunity to everything. That included the sun, silver, and whatever you could think of that would normally kill a vampire. So they named it 'The Rising' randomly just as a term for the event in which my blood would evolve completely, but the only thing that I wonder about is what happens after I hand it off to Drewdon."

"What if you don't hand it to Drewdon or anyone," I suggested, imagining Evanen being the most powerful vampire in the world, which was a much better image than Drewdon, who would enslave all humans and bring about the apocalypse if he could. At least now I could tell why it was such a big deal, but it made me nervous thinking that I'd be in the middle of this.

"I have to. I'm a carrier, which means that it won't work on me, but can be passed on to someone else," Evanen responded, "And after a lot of research, we found that it can be passed to a vampire, but afterward, only Drewdon can make vampires with the true immortality by turning humans. Other vampires will just have to die out as the unevolved breed. Still, I just wonder if I'm to die or if I'll just go back to normal. Drewdon thinks I'll just stay the way I am now, forever unsure if I'll die of old age rather than live forever. That's what sucks about being the only one of your kind... you never have anything to tell what could possibly happen. And it never really bothered me until recently."

It took a moment, but his concern was suddenly starting to sink in. He was watching me think it over until I finally was hit with the realization of what he meant. If he was to die after he handed off the power, what was going to happen to _me_? Even if he lives, what's going to happen? I looked at Evanen in dread, "Drewdon's going to kill me, isn't he?" There was a palpable pause.

"Or turn you," Evanen suggested, "I could turn you before it happens. That's why I've been trying to get you to let me. If you're already a vampire, you'd have a better chance than being human. In fact, once Drewdon is given his power, all human's are doomed. He'll start recruiting them into his new breed of vampires, and start in on allowing vampires to dominate the world. And then he'll no doubt start after regular vampires. Most likely he'll kill them off so as to preserve humans or just to get rid of the weaker breed." He paused before looking at me intensely. "Can you imagine the future wars?" I took notice to the look of excitement on his face rather than fear.

"Well, apparently you think you'll be safe," I said sarcastically to him.

He laughed, "Are you kidding? Drewdon would be afraid of killing me. He's not sure if it would destroy his true immortality or if nothing would happen, but he's sure not going to test it out. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only people I''ll have to be afraid of are normal vampires and humans... not so much humans, but you see where I'm going. They'd want to kill me just in case it gets rid of the new vampires. But not at first, just when the new, strong vampires go after the old, weak ones." He continued to smile reassuringly until I allowed a small, uncertain smile to go back.

At least then I knew I was right in having a bit of doubt when it came to The Rising. It could be the end of me. Either I was going to stay the human girl that Evanen was protecting oddly or Evanen would die and I'd be coming right after him. That is, unless I let him turn me before The Rising. Then I wouldn't have to worry until some good years into the future, which did not make me feel any better. One, because I'd be breaking the only thing that was now connecting me to Mikel: my promise to stay human. And two, because I'd be doomed as a weaker breed of vampires and would be just as enslaved and killed as humans would be. There was nothing too promising in my future, but I preferred not to think about it. Instead of wanting to know more, I wished I was back to my ignorance. It's bliss, right?

I was distracted from my thoughts when Evanen sharply turned his head towards the front of the house, suddenly alert. I frowned, concentrating to see if I could hear anything, but it seemed as though nothing had happened. Then before anything happened, Evanen looked back to me. "Stay here," He said before leaving the room. I looked after him in confusion, not moving for a moment. But then, I had betted that he was in such a hurry, that he didn't lock me in the room. I mean, I hadn't heard any lock, so why not just check to see what's up?

So I moved out of the bed, heading to the door, which was unlocked indeed. I listened through the door first, not wanting to open the door in order to sly into my curiousity state to find Evanen standing directly in front of it still or something. When there wasn't any noise, I cracked the door open to peek through, but nobody was there. As I slipped into the hall and headed toward the stairs as quietly as possible, I began to wonder if maybe this curious side of me wasn't the best personality to keep during such trying times. Still, it only made me hesitate before I shrugged it off and continued towards the stairs.

When I was in view of them, I heard voices downstairs, and paused. I moved to all fours before crawling to the rail of the stairs. When I looked through them, I realized the voices came from the front door, which was directly in view of where I was. Evanen, Cecilian, and a familiar man who I could recognize as Drewdon had their backs to me, looking at the three other men who I'd never seen before. The three men, who I assumed were vampires, were dressed in the same dark suits, looking very grim about something. I moved closer to the rails, assuming it couldn't be a big threat for strangers to be here to me. I rested my head against the rails, and listened to the conversation.

"..only here for a moment, Mr. Draele," the man in the middle said. The only thing I could tell from him was that he had dark, crimson hair. The man to the right had extremely dark skin, and the man on the left was the opposite. In fact, the one on the left was so opposite, that I wouldn't be mistaken in believing he was albino. "We're just investigating now, but you won't have to worry about anything."

"Until after The Rising, you mean," Cecilian said haughtily, "What makes you think we had anything to do with Sir Trenton's death?"

The albino seemed annoyed, but the man in the middle was as calm as ever. "Mrs. Draele, we are obliged to investigate every possible explanation. Sir Trenton was a member of this council, after all, and we can't just leave the murder of our own alone," he explained as-a-matter-of-factly. "We're only going to ask young Mr. Draele some questions; where he's been, when the last time he's seen Sir Trenton, and so forth. After all, it was his human that Sir Trenton was suspected of snatching illegally, correct?" He looked towards Evanen, who's expression I couldn't see, but from behind he looked tense.

"I assumed that was resolved before Sir Trenton's death," Drewdon stated darkly, looking toward Evanen so that I could see how bored he looked by all of this. Then he seemed to glance towards me, causing me to jolt on the inside by the sight of his creepy, yellow eyes. I figured I had imagined this because before I could even blink, he was already looking toward the redhead.

"That's what we're here to figure out," the man replied, and then he seemed to remember something, "And there's another problem. Have you seen Miss Katha around lately?" At this, I became nervous. I could understand why some council would want to know about its own member, but what did Katha have to do with that? Plus, I had been the one who killed her rather than Evanen, so at her mentioning, I figured I would be caught automatically. Even the three Draeles seemed a bit startled by this question.

"Katha," Cecilian asked, and she looked around behind her, definitely spotting me, but searching for a missing person. She didn't seem to care that I was there, but turned back to the men. "Actually, I was wondering where she's been lately myself. Why?" Apparently she had been speaking for the other two because nobody else said anything to back themselves up. I moved my feet through the rails, now no longer caring if anyone else spotted me because it wasn't as if I was doing too well hiding. Nobody looked towards me except the dark man, whose black eyes merely skimmed over me as if I were unimportant before continuing watching the three Draeles.

"Well, you know Jove Silverstone, correct," the man asked, and as if being called, Jove walked in from behind the three men, dressed similar as well. He smiled, holding out his gloved hands so as to greet the Draeles. I was becoming more nervous each moment because if anyone would know what happened to anyone, it would be the man who could read the minds of the people who did it. "You know him and Katha have been in touch for a long time, seeing as they are blood cousins... humanly relative." Now I was very nervous. "Well, Silverstone was telling us he couldn't contact Katha lately, and we're a bit concerned as to her whereabouts. We think something may have happened to her." Jove smoothly looked up at me, smiling as though this were one of his high points in his day. So much for acting concerned about your relatives.

Drewdon apparently wasn't too fond of Jove, for he had seemed bored until Jove came in, and now he looked completely annoyed. "What, are you going to fully investigate each of us, then," Drewdon asked testily, and I assumed "fully investigate" meant a mind-reading investigation.

"Silverstone is the Council Interrogator, after all," the man responded -- no surprise as to the reason there -- before looking darkly at Drewdon, "We're just being completely cautious, Mr. Draele. In fact, I don't think we'll need a full investigation when it comes to you or Mrs. Draele." He glanced at Evanen through the corner of his eyes, "But some others are more in need of questioning in this matter than you two." Then, as though I had yelled at him, he looked up at me.

"Ah, and who is that," he asked, making all eyes turn to me. Now I got to see the seething look upon Evanen's face as he finally got to glare at me without seeming too noticeable. Apparently, he knew I was there the whole time. Automatically, I voided that glare to look towards Jove, who was more kinder with his all-too-familiar smile than those of everyone else. I didn't know if I should wave and introduce myself or slink away. Cecilian seemed to have different goals as she also gave an all-too-familiar look of mischievious glee.

"That would be Evanen's human," Cecilian stated boldly, "Katha always had a thing against that one, and was always trying to figure out a way to get rid of her. That'd be motive enough for Evanen to get rid of her, right?" I was seriously considering slinking away like a slug. "Oh, and that would be the same one Sir Trenton had taken off with, as well." And that was the way to do it. She couldn't get anyone else to get rid of me yet, so why not turn to the law? I mean, they wouldn't be able to get rid of Evanen, so I'd be a good alternative.

Still, I obviously wasn't too interesting because in the next second, the three men looked back to the three Draeles to converse further. "We'll need to see the young Mr. Draele's room.. see if there's anything in there that would point to any other reason of connection between Sir Trenton and Miss Katha," The redheaded man, obviously the leader, stated. There seemed to be no reason not to, so not long later, they all were making their way up the stairs towards Evanen's room. See? If I had stayed put, I would have been just as well in the crosshairs as not staying there. Still, as they all passed me, Evanen didn't continue with them, but moved towards me with a look upon his face that I knew was full of a scolding speech. He wasn't able to give it, seeing as Jove decided to stay put as well.

I shoved myself to my feet, looking at Evanen sheepishly, "Sorry." He just gave me a look before pulling me along with him so that I wouldn't be stuck with Jove alone. When we arrived in front of the room, it was a bit crowded, but Evanen kept a good grip on me. I didn't look to see if Jove was following, but I had no doubt he was. The three men were already in Evanen's room, and were searching it rather quickly. Then they were circled around the spot where Katha had died, looking down at the charred area on the ground. Of course they'd notice it.

After awhile, the leader of the three moved towards Evanen's door. "Evanen Draele," He said as though he were a nurse calling a patient from the waiting room, "We'd like to ask you a few questions in private, please." Evanen looked towards me, Jove, Cecilian, and Drewdon before settling back on me again.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, we're not going to hurt your precious human," Cecilian finally snapped, "Get your claws off of her and go talk to the man." It was times like this that I could notice the more motherly figure Cecilian seemed to play as a Draele. It was odd, but Evanen listened relunctantly before letting me go. Then he was in his room, with the door shut, conversing to the men with words that I was no longer allowed to eavesdrop in. I stood there for a moment, noticing my company wasn't too good of one, and becoming nervous again. Or maybe more nervous because I hadn't exactly moved from that state. I was mainly focusing on not looking at Drewdon because he scared me.

"Hello again," I heard Jove say, and when I looked up, I noticed that Cecilian and Drewdon had moved further down the hall to converse about their own things. I looked at Jove, who I actually had no beef against seeing as he _had_ allowed me to escape from Trenton's grip. Or did he? Maybe he had told Trenton real quick, which would be why Trenton had showed up the moment I had called for Evanen. That was reason enough to be suspicious of him. I decided to look away and just not talk to him. It was safe. He didn't seem to mind, though, and I wondered if he really did have that permanent connection with my mind. "The last time I saw you, you were near death. I must say, you look a lot better when you're actually eating." And he smiled, making me turn to look at his solid green eyes again.

Don't talk to him. Don't talk to him. Don't talk to him.

"I didn't know you were in some vampire council," I bursted with a hint of bitterness, as though he had cheated on me. Then I had to add, "And how can you be related to Katha?" Of course, I knew how a vampire could be related to another. The redheaded man basically told it awhile ago, by stating that they had been related as humans. Still, it was a nice shock that I didn't like too much.

"Well, I joined the council a long time ago, and Katha and I weren't too close, technically. Plus, there's no way you would know, seeing as you weren't too talkative the last time we met," Jove responded. I took notice to the fact that he had his hands clasped together behind his back, as though keeping them out of the way wouldn't tempt him to latch onto my hand or something. He was a very strange vampire. Then again, if he'd been Evanen, he wouldn't have even tried to keep from invading my personal boundaries. "I heard you by the way. When you said hello to me quite randomly. I assume Evanen decided to tell you a bit about me." Now I regreted doing that.

"Just a little," I responded vaguely, and then I finally said, "You know, I really don't care if you read my mind and all, but you're probably not going to like what you see. I just want to say sorry ahead of time.. in case they make you do it or something." There was something really strange about him because for some reason, I couldn't shut up. He merely smiled, though, apparently not believing that I killed Katha. And then I got an idea. I looked at Jove clearly before thinking just as clearly, _I killed Katha_. Not that he wouldn't have figured that out anyway.

Jove didn't seemed phased, and I wondered if he even heard it. Then he said, "I know, Hailence." He suddenly was directly in front of me, before he said quietly, "I'm sorry about your accident." I was utterly confused for a moment, but then he looked down at my stomach. Automatically, I felt a pain of realization that he had known about Mikel's child after all. Maybe that was why he had let me get away. Still, I felt even more bitter that he hadn't told me about it. After he apologized, though, he stopped talking, as though I were no longer interesting. Which, to tell the truth, I could say that I'm not because I believe I'm not. Truthfully, I had no idea why I was even in this mess.

The door to Evanen's room opened, and all three men moved out, followed by Evanen himself. He moved quickly to stand beside me, and to peer at Jove suspiciously. That must suck, I thought, he finally was rid of Mikel, and now he had a new person to be suspicious of. Not that he had to be suspicious of Jove because that was never going to happen. Who wants a relationship with someone who knows everything you know and not the other way around? No thanks.

The three men were now in front of Evanen and me, and the leader of them looked at me absently. "There's just one last thing to do, and we'll be on our way," He said shortly, and I noticed that Cecilian and Drewdon were now back with us. The man looked to Jove, who nodded curtly. Jove started pulling his gloves off carefully before moving in front of us. Then he held out his hand to Evanen, who hesitated clearly. Knowing Evanen, I knew that he absolutely hated the thought of another person in his mind. But he bitterly put one fingertip against the palm of Jove's hand as though Jove were the most disgusting thing in the world that Evanen had to touch. I couldn't help but smile at the look on Evanen's face. There was merely a moment of this before Jove pulled away, apparently finding another person he wasn't too fond to be connected to. It wasn't as if it were clear in his distaste of Evanen, but something about his withdrawal revealed how Jove preferred to not touch Evanen as well.

Before saying anything, Jove moved to me, which I noticed annoyed Evanen even more than Jove touching him. Jove smiled lightly at me, and I smiled partially back before placing my hand in his without hesitation. Automatically, I felt the burst of energy that made me burn to ask why that happened everytime he did that. Everything was more clear than before, and I liked it. I wondered what exactly he saw when he did this, but apparently it wasn't near as disturbing to him as Evanen's thoughts had been. He seemed relieved the moment he touched me, and then he had to let go or it would disturb the others who were watching. When he tore his grip away, I felt the absent buzzing in my extremities as though I had just got done running away from something.

Jove turned to the three men, holding his chin thoughtfully. "Nothing," He said to them, "Mr. Draele last saw Trenton the night before he died, but didn't kill him. He retrieved the human instead, settling it then, but not violently. As for Katha, they haven't seen her for a length of time either, so I think she might have just run off. He was telling the truth about the burned spot in his room. Apparently the human was messing with candles and wasn't cautious enough. They're innocent." And he seemed to be finished. I was utterly shocked, but tried my best to hide it.

"We're sorry to bother you all, then," The redhead stated to the Draeles, not concerned with me what-so-ever. "Thanks for being patient throughout this. We hope to see you under better times." And that was it. As they left the house, Jove turned to smile one last time at me. And then they were gone. Evanen and I seemed to be the only ones relieved with this result, but Cecilian was the opposite.

"What a waste," She muttered as she walked off bitterly. Drewdon had disappeared before saying anything about the matter. I assumed this was considered just as much as a waste to him as to Cecilian, but he probably didn't see it as anything else but a great bore to interrupt whatever it is that he does. Either way, I couldn't help but be glad about the helpfullness Jove ended up being.

"I guess that's the end of that," I said to Evanen once we got back to the room, "See, Jove's not too bad."

Evanen seemed to growl as though the thought of Jove annoyed him, "No. We _owe_ him, now. I hate owing people. Especially him." At least he only owed Jove once. This made it two times Jove helped me out. I went to sleep that night, finally a bit more happier about looking forward to my dreams with one less thing to stress me out. But then.. that didn't stop me from remembering Katha's eyes when I had stabbed her.


	30. Chapter 30: Forgotten

**Chapter Thirty**

_Forgotten_

I was uncertain as to whether or not I should turn on the television. The thing I was worried most about was the news, and whether anything was still being said about the now two missing teenagers from Merit. I didn't know what was worse: the chance that it would say something about us or that it wouldn't. Most likely it wouldn't, which wouldn't make me feel too much better either way. After all, I didn't want anyone to quite forget about me. Then again, I did state that I had run away to my father. I sighed at that thought before looking from the television in the living room area, where the fireplace was doing its job at last, to Evanen, who still refused to allow me on my own.

After a moment, Evanen finally got annoyed by my staring at him. "What," he asked uncomfortably.

"I'm bored," I responded, when really I was becoming agitated as the days passed. November 20th seemed to be haunting over our thoughts even more now, so that it seemed everyone was so nervous about it that nobody was fighting anymore. Everything was at peace, and we all were just trying to stay away from each other as we prepared for the beginning of the Vampire Reign, and the end of human life as we all knew it. At some point, I wondered if maybe people expected a person in my position to be a hero and save my own kind... but I figured that would be the stupidest expectation a person could place on me. Hello, I'm Hailence, not Superman.

"Why do you always have to be doing something," Evanen asked irritably. "You should expect that you're going to live for awhile, so why must you do everything now? Take a break." This didn't make much sense seeing as, if you thought my way, I had been taking a break sense I had been stowed away here. I mean, it's not like I'm going anywhere or doing anything that would help me gain some life-long goal I'd had.

I scoffed. "I'm still bored," I responded bitterly, and stood up from in front of the dead television. I started to walk towards the kitchen, assuming Evanen would be following behind me, but not checking to see. When bored, food is your friend. So I pulled out an orange soda from the fridge - specially ordered by myself - and snatched some Doritos from the cabinet. I sat down on a stool next to the counter, opening both the soda and the Doritos, and continued to self-indulge myself into a point of some entertainment. To spice things up, I spun in circles around my stool.

That's when I realized the telephone stationed not too far away that I somehow had missed all this time. For some reason, I assumed the time when I had called my father had been a dream, and I never really took notice to the fact that Cecilian had handed me a phone after all. Then nobody ever called here, so that helped in wiping the idea of phone calls from my mind. But instead of looking at the phone in planning, I looked up, expecting Evanen to be nearby to stay around my personal bubble. Instead, he seemed to have not followed me as I had assumed he had. This caused an utter rip of hesitation because now I was separated between two things: to use the phone or not.

I didn't decide right off the bat. Instead, I kind of moved to a closer stool, and continued this until I had shuffled myself next to the phone in utter innocence. Then I started viewing over my pros and cons. For my pros: Evanen wasn't around, nobody had to know, I'd hear my dad's voice again, my dad would no longer think I hated him, and everything could be resolved right then without actually escaping. As for the cons, I had: Evanen is a vampire... he could hear me, it could get me in awesome trouble, I might slip that I wasn't here under my will, the cops could come, and I could doom everyone, my dad included with me. This was enough to make me consider that it wasn't worth it. But then I tried to think back to the last words my dad had ever said, and I couldn't actually remember what he sounded like anymore.

I picked up the phone as delicately as possible, looking at the numbers upon the face of it. I wondered if I would even remember my own phone number, but then that would always be branded in my head. So, as quietly as possible, I dialed each number carefully, trying as hard as possible to not make the noise too obvious to the ear. All the while, I kept looking around to see if Evanen was nearby, but he had stayed in the distance. Then I put the phone to my ear, my heart pounding furiously with adrenaline of my brave action. Plus, I was going to hear my dad again.

"Hello," An unfamiliar, female voice sang into the phone. The fact that some happy chick picked up my fathers phone made me pause completely, unsure as to if I had actually dialed the phone number correctly. There was a clear pause before the woman said uncertainly, "Hello? Anyone there? Hellloooo.."

"Yes," I suddenly said in a hushed voice. "Is Bart Truit there?"

"Oh, hold on a minute, darling," the woman sang, now back to her chipperness as she called into the distance, "Bart, honey, phone!" I was now completely confused as to why there was a woman answering my dad's phone, happy as a clam, in the house of a depressed father, abandoned by both wife and daughter. And then I was confused, wondering why she called him 'honey'. But then, she called me _darling_ - I hate pet names - so it could be just some bad habit she had.

There was a sound of shuffling, and then a gruff, but energetic voice said, "Yes, hello?" It was definitely my dad, but I had expected some desperate answering or maybe a bit of grief behind that voice. Instead, he seemed just as chipper as the woman. This made me hesitate even more, and I heard him mutter something to the woman, who responded, "Oh, she's a slow talker, dear. Be patient."

I felt like punching her just by the sound of her voice. But then I focused on my father. "Dad," I said quietly, now absorbed in this conversation. There was an awkward pause, where both of us didn't say anything. I waited for something, such as warm greeting or bullet questions, but nothing came for a long time. I began to wonder if he'd hung up or died.

"Hailence," Dad said bluntly, calling me by a name that he never usually used before. It kind of hurt. There was more silence.

"I'm sorry, Dad," I told him sincerely.

"What do you want," He asked harshly, "You need money or something? Is that why you called after all these months?" There was the sudden sound of questioning behind him, and I could hear the woman asking what was going on. And that's when I heard her quietly in the background say, "Oooh, is that my future step-daughter-". I felt like my heart was fallen to my feet in shock. All this time I had been worried that I had drove my father into insane grief, and he meets some bouncy woman instead, just as happy as can be without me?

"No, Dad," I responded to his questioning. "I just-"

Before I could say anything, he interupted with, "What happened to _Bart_, huh?" This was not the dad I remembered. I suddenly heard someone clear their voice, and I froze. Then I slowly looked up to see Evanen sitting across from me with a death look upon his face. I bit down on my bottom lip, caught redhanded in the act.

"I've got to go," I said quietly to dad, who could probably care less now. But before he could say anything, I hung up the phone, and held it out to Evanen, who snatched it from my hand angrily. Then, without struggle, he snapped the phone in half and crushed it between his hands. I thought this was a bit much, but I didn't much care that he destroyed any contact with the outside world. Nobody was apparently missing me anyway. Evanen spent a good moment glaring at me bluntly.

"So what'd you tell him, huh? Tell him where you are? Maybe a little story about vampires," Evanen asked seethingly.

I scoffed, "That's ridiculous, Evanen. I didn't even..." And I burst into tears, which I believed to be induced by those female hormones that seemed to be egging on tears during stressful times more than ever. I wasn't sure how that would convince Evanen that I merely said 'hello' to my dad and didn't give anything away, but then I wasn't exactly thinking about that either way. My dad, the only family member who was there for me, now hated me. He called me _Hailence_. Whatever happened to Wynnie? _Whatever happened to Wynnie_?!

For the first time ever, Evanen moved around the counter, sat closer to me, and pulled me into his arms in an embrace. It was actually shocking, but then maybe being around a human so much was teaching him not to fear tears. Still, I believed him to be at least partially confused, and felt a bit oblidged to inform him as to the reason behind the sudden rush of emotion. Well, he could have assumed it was just homesickness, but then no one quite knew what type of conclusion Evanen would come to.

So I tried to suck in the sobbing, and gave myself a moment to gain a breath. And I said, "My dad... hates me. And he's replaced me... with some... bimbo." Add sniffles between each, and you get how exactly like a child I had become. Then I started crying some more at the pain behind the realization that I was lost here forever. Even if I did get away, my own dad wouldn't want me, and my mom... where _is_ she?

"I know," Evanen comforted. At least, that was the first impression I got, but when I took notice to the fact that this was Evanen, I thought twice. Normal people say 'I know' as in they understand... but Evanen would only say 'I know' if indeed he knew.

I pulled away from him in offense. "What do you mean '_you know_'," I asked suspiciously.

Without even considering making some excuse to get away from female rage, Evanen merely stated, "I've been spying on your dad, remember? I've known about his 'bimbo' for awhile now. I figured if ever you said something in concern of your dad, I'd tell you the good news that he's getting along just fine without you. See, it is good news, right? Now no one needs you, and you can stay here forever." And he smiled happily. I narrowed my eyes.

"You... it's your fault he hates me... you.. you _asshole_," and I screeched angrily before stomping off towards the stairs, leaving Evanen behind with a bit of a stunned expression upon his face. I started up the stairs, but before I got halfway up, Evanen appeared in front of me in a flash. He grabbed my upper arms to stop me desperately, and I sulked.

"What do you want, huh," Evanen asked, trying to hold back his anger. I continued to glare at him. "What? You want me to go kill your dad's girlfriend? I'll go do it right now. Is that what you want?"

I scoffed, "No! Stop killing people for no reason!"

"Then what," he yelled, "What do you want? What can I do to make you, Hailence, happy to be here?"

I felt the rage boil furiously in my gut, and I yelled right back, "How about you go away!?" Evanen glared at me for a moment, and then he seemed to accept this request. He shoved me bitterly to the side, causing me to stumble a bit before landing on my butt and bumping the back of my head against the wall. I pushed myself back to my feet, watching him storm down the stairs and out the door. "Yeah, real mature," I screamed right after him, rubbing the back of my head. It wasn't long before I heard a car start and drive off into the distance.

I almost sniffled before heading back up towards what I assume I would be stuck calling my room seeing as I was sure that my so-called dad probably reformed my old one back at my use-to-be home into a nursery. I opened the door, not quite paying attention any longer to my surroundings, and shut it behind me before heading straight towards the bed. Before I could reach it, a shadow in the corner of my eye made me hesitate. I stood still for a moment, and then swiftly turned my head to face it in dread.

Drewdon's yellow eyes peered at me gloomly, as though being in the spot he was at the moment was the last place he wished to be. Without waiting for a response to his presense, he said, "If you scream, I'll be forced to silence you." I could have possibly gulped loudly at that point, but I was pretty sure I wasn't planning on screaming. Maybe whimpering.

I built up courage enough to blurt, "Why are you here?" Drewdon moved more into the light, so that he seemed even more towering than before. He didn't look changed. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail that rested on his back, and he still seemed dressed business-like. The fact that he was in this room just disturbed me, especially seeing as I chased away Evanen. At this thought, I was reminded quite suddenly of the necklace I still had placed about my neck. So as Drewdon stepped closer, I backed up, and reached my hand around the rose of the necklace.

"Don't call that imbecile," Drewdon suddenly said dully, noticing my grip on the necklace.

With a frown, I responded, "Why not? Don't think I didn't forget that time you nearly killed me."

"Calm down," He ordered, and it rushed into my thoughts. I almost smiled at how pitiful an attempt it was as I easily pushed it away.

"I am," I answered.

"I just want to ask you a couple of questions," Drewdon stated, and the back of my knees hit the side of the bed, causing me to sit down. Now Drewdon looked even more towering. Though, I was sure this was how he preferred it: the human as low to the ground as possible so that he, the most powerful vampire, would tower over them like a God. Drewdon suddenly stepped back, grabbing a chair, and placed it in front of me to sit down in it. This startled me because now he was no longer a towering figure, which conflicted my assumption. Once he was settled, which was quite sudden, he stared at me with those creepy yellow eyes. "What happened to Katha?"

I bit my bottom lip. I thought this whole thing was over with already. "I don't know... she ran away, didn't she," I replied innocently.

Drewdon peered at me with disbelief. "I know she didn't run away," He stated darkly, "Now tell me the truth. What did you and Evanen do to Katha?" This happened to be another one of those orders which tried to latch onto my thoughts, but I pushed it away without too much effort.

"Nothing. I thought she ran away," I said defiantly. There was a definite pause in which Drewdon himself seemed mentally startled by this response. But then I wouldn't have expected less seeing as I had ignored his order after all. He seemed to have come to a conclusion, and he leaned back a bit in thought.

"Stand up," He suddenly ordered, and I shoved it from my thought quickly. Then I just looked at him, still defiant. "Smile?" I almost did because of the question form, but I kept the order at bay and glared at him instead. For a moment, Drewdon just looked at me. Then he smiled himself, which was a shocker because I didn't think someone like Drewdon ever actually smiled unless it was because he had a mass amount of people before him to kill. It made me extremely nervous. "So, Evanen has taken an immense liking to you, a human. He even taught you how to fight away mind control. I wouldn't have expected that." I shrugged, and he stopped smiling.

With a suddenly dark look, he continued, "Don't think you'll survive after the Rising. I don't care if Evanen wishes you alive or not, you're dead even if I have to be the one to do it."

I became suddenly angry, and I snapped, "Good! I'll be counting on it!" And I glared at him furiously. Actually, I wouldn't say that was too smart of a thing to be counting on, but it was becoming annoying that I now had a list of death threats from vampires. If you're going to do it, do it. But then, there was a great length of silence that was so awkward that the tension burned my ears. I felt like I was having an anxiety attack. Soon, I was sure I was going to squeak out an apology so this whole moment was finished with already.

"Don't get in the way," Drewdon suddenly warned.

With the most sincere feeling I could muster, I responded, "I won't." It came out sounding completely innocent and slightly hurt, which I hadn't meant to sound, but it seemed to stir some sort of confusion that was brewing behind Drewdon's eyes. It did seem to satisfy his worries, though. I assumed they had to do with me suddenly feeling oblidged to save the world, but sadly I'm not cut out for that type of work. Feeling a bit more courageous, I suddenly bursted questioningly, "Why are your eyes yellow? Or is that some sort of... vampire.. thing..." I already regretted asking it.

Drewdon peered at me thoughtfully for a moment. "Why do you want to know," he asked bluntly.

Suddenly, I broke into a wide smile. Apparently someone didn't know me at all. "I happen to be the most curious human being in the world," I answered sincerely, though I admit, I used a bit of a hyperbole there. "I can't help it. I know how Evanen, Mikel, and Katha came to be vampires, and Evanen gave me a good bit of information about Cecilian, but I don't know anything about your story. In fact, no one does..."

Drewdon suddenly looked a bit dark, as though my curiousity irritated him, but I held tight to where I was. "My eyes are yellow because I was blind," He stated dementedly, "When a person is turned, every bad damage to their body is undone, which includes wrinkles, disease, missing fingers, and apparently blindness. That was back in 1657, when I was just some pitiful blind human crawling on the side of the street. Then I was turned, and my sight came back..."

"And you were recruited, right," I asked, remembering something about a 'vampires-shall-rule' breeding. This remark startled Drewdon.

"That is none of your business. What do you care, anyway. You're dead," he responded, and seemed to be done with what short of a life story he had decided to tell. He stood up, moving to leave.

"We killed Katha," I admitted, and pointed at the burn spot on the ground. "Evanen was mad because she traded me off to Sir Trenton, so he killed her. Well.. had me kill her. And I don't know what he did with her remains." I guess I was kind of hoping he would freak out and kill me because I didn't feel much fear when he turned to look at the spot on the ground. Just admitting to being a murderer, now of two people, sort of bothered me, and I was becoming far too exhausted to worry about living at the moment.

"I thought so," Drewdon responded, and he left. For a moment, I stared at the door, and then I accepted that that was all over, and I laid back on the bed. At the time, I sort of wished the Rising was already here.


	31. Chapter 31: One of Questions

**Chapter Thirty-One**

_One Of Questions_

Every vampire in the region who knew of the Rising was ultimately on the verge of a panic attack of chaos. It was the night before November 20th, and Evanen hadn't been heard of for days. Not since I told him that I'd be happy if he would go away, which he seemed all too greatful to do. I hadn't actually expected him to just disappear, but then again, I never quite understood Evanen enough to ever tell what exactly he was planning to do. Still, it was like an hour away from being the day of the Rising, and the man of the day was AWOL.

Being that the Rising had nothing to do with me, I would have no reason to be worried. Except for the fact that I held a device around my neck that was the only way to contact Evanen, and I happened to be the human he was devoted to.. at least enough to punk out of his own world-changing destiny at my minor request. (I just might be the hero of mankind after all!) But, with these points at my feet, I had a reason to be worried because in a house of power hungry vampires missing their source of powers, being the one able to contact and control that power yet being helpless yourself was not a good position to be in.

Waiting for the moment when Cecilian, Drewdon, or both of them would come in and put me in a life-threatening position in order for me to scream Evanen's name for salvation so that he would have to return, I laid curled up under the blankets in my orange pj shorts and orange spaghetti strap night-shirt, clutching Evanen's necklace in my grip. Normally I'd be cold, but the heater was working full force and I was relatively comfortable. I wasn't actually too worried about being killed, seeing as I had at some point accepted this next day to be my end already, so it wasn't as though I were begging Evanen to return through the necklace. It was more of a teasing, bored tone.

"Evanen," I called in a sing-song voice, "Maybe you should stop throwing your fit until after tomorrow." I myself believed the whole "trying to convince Evanen to come home" thing to be pointless because he wasn't going to budge under my will anyway. After all, I was the one he was mad at. "Evanen, oh Evanen, where are you?" I'd been doing this every once in awhile when I was bored. It wasn't as though it worked. Well, I wouldn't know because it wasn't a two-way response system. Still, he hadn't shown up yet so I didn't figure he would anytime soon.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching my door. Somehow, I knew it wasn't Evanen. Sure enough, the door burst open, and I froze. It was strange how I felt safer because I was under a blanket, and the same feeling amplified when hiding under a bed. Ah, the mental damage we receive from our naive childhoods. It took about a second for the blanket to be stripped from my covered orb of safety, and Cecilian stood over me like a mad woman.

"Give.. it.. to me," she said in such a strained voice that I pulled off the necklace automatically and handed it to her with wide eyes. Well, if other vampires were on the brink of a panic attack, Cecilian was beyond that. I never saw such a wreck of a healthy vampire. And in one fatal blow, Cecilian screamed into the necklace, "EVANEN!" I covered my ears in automatic pain at the sound of it, never hearing anything so loud in my life.

Just when I thought my eardrums would explode, she ended the screamed name. I stared at Cecilian, who paid no attention to me, with a gaping mouth and bulging eyes. I wanted to make a remark about how that would be the most unwelcoming call I'd ever hear, and that she probably scared him off for good, but the timing seemed oh so wrong.

"You better be here tonight or I'll _destroy_ your human, YOU HEAR ME," She screeched, and threw the necklace next to me with so much force that it broke through the bed like a bullet. I watched her storm out of the room without a glance my way, and hesitated before moving my hands away from my ears. Sure enough, at a glance, I saw a bit of blood had dripped onto my hands. At least I wasn't deaf. I reached into the hole in the bed, and pulled out the necklace.

"Great, now I'm going to be destroyed rather than just killed tomorrow," I said quietly into the necklace, "Evanen, I get your point, I'm not happy here even when you're gone. I admit it." I put the necklace back around my neck morbidly, and moved out of the bed. I wiped just under my ear, looking at my bloody hand, and started into the bathroom to clean up the mess Cecilian left. The blood loss wasn't as bad as it seemed, actually quite minor, but I cleaned it up anyway. After I was done, I stared at my reflection in the mirror, thinking about my upcoming death. I couldn't actually imagine dying or seeing this blinking face completely still, arms crossed in preparation of burial. If I was even properly buried. I mean, who knows what type of death humans will have after the Rising. Maybe we'll be just flung into the street, our bodies twisted pathetically, and our dead state public for all vampires to laugh and spit on. Or maybe we'll all just burn.

I sighed, feeling a sudden wave of nervousness at the prospect of my death. What if there was nothing after death? What if I was sent into a darkness... and even was aware of the neverending darkness? What would all this amount to? But the feeling passed, due to some human emotional defense mechanism that somehow allows us only to be worried about mortal death for short periods of time. Except for those who lack it. I felt sorry for those who couldn't stop being worried about death so that they were in a constant state of fear.

I opened the bathroom door to go back to my orb of safety under the blanket. I nearly jumped out of my skin, though, for Evanen was seated on the edge of the bed expectantly, as though he hadn't just scared every vampire in the regional area by his prolonged absense. For a moment, I just looked at him with a bit of disbelief, and he smirked triumphantly, his sharp, blue eyes excited for the next step in his life.

"Did you miss me," he asked darkly, a sort of what I imagined to be blood thirst in his tone.

Unsure what to do at the moment, I looked at him suspiciously, not moving to back away or move closer. "You could say that," I responded sarcastically, with a bit of annoyance.

"I couldn't miss you, what with your voice constantly teasing me in my head," Evanen stated, and he looked around as though something about the room was different. "I'm back, though, and now you don't have to worry about being killed tomorow." He moved his gaze to me with a bit of amusement that reminded me of when I first was taken here.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I countered suddenly, "Drewdon says he's going to kill me either way. Guess I'm too much of a liability."

Evanen shook his head, rejecting that bit of information. "I won't let him, Hailence."

There was a definite pause, as I felt a sudden burst of dread. It was something I had been thinking about for awhile, the whole being killed thing. I had sort of reached a decision that it was what I preferred. In fact, I didn't feel like living next to Evanen and watching the world fall to peices, forever doomed to be some human slave or turned into some vampire slave instead. Death seemed a better point to reach before all that would happen, and so I had been serious when I told Drewdon I'd be counting on his killing me. But Evanen would definitely have a hand in preventing it.

"What do I have to do for you to let him kill me," I suddenly asked Evanen, and he looked sharply from the ceiling to me in startlement. Then he frowned in confusion, as though I were telling him a joke and he didn't quite get it. I waited for his response.

"Wait. What," he inquired, thinking over my question darkly.

I sighed, "What exactly do I have to do to get you to be bored enough of me to let Drewdon kill me tomorrow? Huh? Or maybe you'd like to kill me instead... make it some sort of death of passion type of thing?" My heart was starting to thump in my chest under the sudden stress I had placed upon myself. I had seriously gone suicidal, but I couldn't back out now or I'd be stuck in Hell forever.

"I don't..," Evanen started, and he stopped, unsure of what to say.

"What about this whole love thing? I'll bet it's not what you think.. I'll bet it's the whole play-hard-to-get thing. If I stopped playing, would that work? Would you just finish me off already," I asked sincerely, my gut reeling at the words coming out of my mouth. Evanen stared at me, probably certain this was one of those tests I had up my sleeve. Blocking off what cowardice I had within me, and building adrenaline, I moved in front of Evanen determinely. I moved my thumbs under the elastic hem of my orange pj shorts, and pulled them down so that they dropped onto the floor, leaving me in my spaghetti strap shirt and panties.

Just like that, I slid onto Evanen's lap, strattling him. His face was blank, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. "Would you do it if I had sex with you? If I told you I loved you," I asked in a trembling voice, moving his hands to my lower back before moving my lips just above his ear. "I love you, Evanen," I lied, whispering thickly into his ear. Suddenly, he turned his head to connect his lips with mine, and instead of fighting him off, I kissed him back. At first, he kissed me lightly, as though uncertain of himself, and then he started to tighten his grip on my body, pressing me against him harder. It wasn't long until his kiss was sending shocks of pain through me.

I felt the skin on my lips crack and start to bleed. I started wincing in pain, regretting this whole thing, but certain that Evanen would kill me after all. Suddenly he broke the kiss, and I gasped in pain. Before I could reach up to touch my lips, Evanen swiftly flung me over onto my back on the bed, and moved sharply over me. I started sliding back, not exactly trying to escape, but prolonging whatever doom he had in mind for me. And when I reached the edge of the pillows, I raised my hands to place on his chest. He easily grabbed my wrist and pushed them down on the pillow above my head. I started breathing heavily in anticipation as he pressed his lips over my sore ones firmly. His hand trailed along the side of my torso greedily.

Evanen lifted his head, his eyes wild and fighting to get control of himself. "Go ahead, do it," I egged him on, wishing for the end of this to come as quickly as possible. There was a struggle behind his eyes as he grabbed my jaw firmly. He paused, and I looked at him reapproachingly.

"You want me to kill you, then," He asked, the blood thirst definite now.

"Yes, just kill me," I ordered, fighting back the thick fear pulsing through me. Evanen shook his head, and I felt a rush of disappointment. "Just do it, Evanen. You did with the other girls. Just pretend I'm just like them; a pathetic human. _Kill me_." If I could've hit him, I would've done that as well, but he still pretty much had me pinned.

"Just like the others," He asked darkly.

"Yeah," I responded, "Just like the others."

I barely got the words out of my mouth when suddenly he pressed his thumb into my bare stomach, sending a sharp pain throughout my body as his nail broke the skin dementedly. Automatically, I breathed in sharply in pain, and held my breathe, closing my eyes tightly. Without pausing, Evanen slid his thumb downward leisurely, towards my belly button, with massive patience. The brutal cut he was leaving behind went halfway towards my navel before I couldn't help but to scream in pain. I started struggling based on instincts, forgetting exactly why I would want to die this way, but it was futile. Evanen didn't even have to try to keep me restrained, seeing as he just kept one hand holding my wrists down, and continued on his path to my belly button without expression.

Suddenly, he lifted his thumb from my stomach, looking at the blood dripping from the tip of it. He hungrily stuck his thumb in his mouth before looking at the cut on my stomach. I stopped struggling, believing him to have just done that to prove a point, and winced continually at the burst of pain the cut caused. After looking at it for a moment, as though it were an art peice, Evanen bent down and trailed his tongue from one end of the cut to the other end, causing whimpers to escape my lips at the pain that alone added to it.

"Hmm," Evanen said, looking at the cut boredly, "Not quite deep enough, but one more try and I'm sure that'll be good enough. Then we can get to the fun part... the inside." He smiled almost eagarly as he moved his thumb back to the top of the cut.

Terrified, I screamed, "No! No, I'm sorry! No, please don't!" I started sobbing, waiting for the searing pain to begin again. I felt his thumb press lightly over the cut, but instead of digging into it, he moved his cool fingertip over the surface of it almost sadly. I kept my jaw tightly clenched, waiting for him to finish what he was doing, but he just continued tracing the cut.

"What happened to your death wish," Evanen asked sarcastically, and he moved from my stomach to grab my jaw again. He forced me to look at him. "If you were like the others, I would've killed you a long time ago." He lightly pressed his lips against mine, and then moved my head to the side as he lightly kissed my neck lovingly. It wasn't long until I felt a certain sensation of sleepiness wash over me. He trailed his lips over my neck hungrily, and switched to the other side of my neck, making me turn my head so that the world seemed to turn with me.

"I'm going to turn you," Evanen suddenly said quietly, so that it slurred into my thoughts.

"No," I responded slowly, and he continued kissing my neck seductively. I felt my heart throbbing in my throat desperately.

"I'm going to make you one of us," He paraphrased, apparently not wanting to do it until he got the right answer out of me. I thought a definite 'no', but this time nothing came past my tongue. This seemed to be enough of a confirmation for him, and I suddenly felt a gentle pinch as he peirced his fangs into my throat. I closed my eyes, feeling the wave of exhaustion dizzying me until it was as though I was drunk. I mentally struggled against it, but my body refused to connect with my mind for control.

Just when my breath became shallow, Evanen upbruptly pulled away. He hovered over me a moment, and I tried to focus on him, but nothing seemed to want to stay still. The next thing I knew, Evanen let go of what grip he had on me, and rolled away from me, onto his back. I felt the sleepiness wash away from me, leaving the hangover of the blood loss. I groaned, gripping my neck in uncomfort. When I pulled my hand away to look at it, blood was leaking through my fingers. He hadn't closed the wound yet, which was strange. Wait. It was strange that he wasn't finishing it off.

"Evanen," I said in a scruff voice as I sluggishly moved off the bed towards my pj shorts. I bent down to grab them, nearly falling over due to the sudden swirling of the world, and slowly pulled them back on. Then I grabbed my neck again, feeling the blood still leisurely spilling through the wound gently. I turned to look at the bed, and saw Evanen was still laying there on his back. "Evanen?" I moved closer to the bed uncertainly. He had his eyes closed in what looked like pain, his hands to the side were clutching the bedsheets angrily, and he was completely still.

Still gripping my neck, I moved closer towards him. "Evane--," I started, but before I could finished, Evanen's mouth opened to allow a painful roar to burst from his soul. I backed up, stunned by the tearing scream he'd just erupted. Then he dragged in another breath in agony, and when he let out another roar, I screamed as well. I backed into the wall, not sure what was happening except that I'd never heard Evanen scream like that.. nor be in pain like this. It scared me.

The door to the room bursted open, and Cecilian walked in followed by Drewdon. Drewdon pointed at Evanen and said, "Get him to the attic. It's started." Cecilian walked to Evanen and gently moved him to his feet. He didn't fight her off, seeing as he seemed to be in another world at the time, and soon he was being led out of the room. I thought about Drewdon's remark for a moment before I realized that he must have been talking about the Rising. It's started, and I wasn't dead yet. The end of the human world was closer than ever, and I was more scared then than I was minutes before. When Evanen was gone with Cecilian, Drewdon didn't follow them. I was still backed against the wall, clutching my less-bleeding wound, and I stared openly at him, wondering why he hadn't just left. Unless he was about to finish me off then.

Drewdon turned towards me, seeming in deep thought about something. "You..," he started, but before he could say anything further, I moved to run away. I got about two steps out the door when Drewdon snatched my wrist and started dragging me towards the stairs.

"What are you doing," I asked, frightened. When he didn't answer, I tried pulling my hand out of his grip, which I knew would get me nowhere. In fact, all my struggling did was nearly kill me on the way down the stairs. Drewdon didn't stop to look or help me out in any way. Instead, we reached the bottom of the stairs, and he turned into the living room, pulling me along like a doll. I stopped struggling the moment I came into view of the living room. The whole room was filled with both familiar and mostly unfamiliar faces. All were dressed the same, in dark suits, just like the three men and Jove had been when they had showed up that one day. In fact, it wasn't hard to spot the albino guy and the redhead, and I was certain this was the whole of the Council. They must have come to sit out the whole transition of the Rising.

"Council," Drewdon announced, moving me in front of him. I felt extremely vulnerable and exposed, plus a bit weak from the blood loss. "This is Evanen Draele's human, the one he's become a bit too fond of, and the one I believe may have been spoken of in reference to the Rising. So you all know how extremely important it is that she's to be either killed now or taken away from here immediately. I myself would do it, but I'm needed elsewhere. Please, whoever wants her, take her." I was utterly confused and nervous, but before anyone else could say anything, a hand shot up out of the group. I started to look at who it was connected to, but then I was being shoved into a random room that reminded me of a coat closet except larger. The door shut behind me, and I was left in the dark.

It wasn't long before the door opened again. Automatically, I backed up as far as I could away from the person. It was worse that I was going to die from some random vampire in a closet. The person stepped closer, and I started whimpering before putting my hands in front of me as though that would protect me. Without hesitation, the vampire wrapped its hands around my wrists, and I closed my eyes.

"Hailence," I heard someone familiar say reassuringly. I opened my eyes, but there was nothing but darkness greeting me. I looked forward blindly, trying to focus on Jove, who suddenly let go of my wrists. After a moment, there was a click and it was no longer dark. I saw Jove, who was dressed in his dark suit and looked amazingly in tune with his surroundings, as though there were a mine somewhere and he was searching for any sign of it blowing up around him. I let out a rush of air, slightly relieved.

"Jove," I sighed, before feeling a sudden wave of dizziness. I started sliding to the floor, feeling the buzz in my skull, which I hadn't felt since the constant dizzy spells my hypertension used to give me. Jove reached out to grab me before I fell all the way down, and pulled me close to him. "I think I'm still bleeding," I explained, and I started to reach to my neck in order to find out but Jove stopped me. He moved my hair from my neck gently, and the sudden exposure of the wound made him freeze. That was about the time I remembered that he was a vampire, and I started getting nervous. There was a moment in which I kept absolutely still, learning from previous lessons. Then Jove moved towards the wound carefully before I suddenly felt him trail his tongue over the bite gently. The contact sent the sudden burst of energy through me that Jove always caused.

After a moment, he pulled away and smiled. "There's never a dull moment around you, is there? You're always in some sort of trouble," He teased, letting go of me. I smiled with a bit of relief that he didn't just finish me off. But then there was a definite pause where someone was suppose to say something along the lines of 'now what'.

"What did Drewdon mean when he said I might be the girl in reference to the Rising," I asked curiously.

Jove found something amusing in this question, "He believes you're the One of Questions." I just stared at him for a moment, obviously questioning in my eyes what exactly that meant. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "It's an after story to the whole Rising prophecy. There was a small stream of rumors saying the transition of the key to immortality would be halted by the One of Questions, who will be a human with amazing power that will defeat all vampires and stop the Rising of vampires." He laughed at the expression on my face.

"Well, I think Drewdon forgot the part about 'amazing powers' which I oh so lack," I laughed in return. "And me defeating all vampires? Puh-lease." I stopped laughing, no longer finding the whole thing funny. "Could you just turn me into a vampire already? It would solve so many problems." I looked up at Jove, who was still amused as ever.

"Oh, no, Hailence," Jove responded, grabbing my hand lightly. "I believe you're destined for something far greater than being turned by the pitiful likes of a vampire like me. We'll just get you out of the house until after the Rising, and bring you back to Mr. Evanen, who can turn you if you'd like later. I'm sure it would please him to all ends."

I sighed, "Fine, then. How do I get out of this house, which, by the way, is littered with vampires who were just told to kill me?"

"Ah, leave that to me," He stated, and he moved to the door. Instead of opening it and creating a diversion, he leaned against the door. "We'll just walk out the front door, I hope. Now, try to keep quiet so that I can concentrate. I haven't actually done this but once before to a dog and I'm going to need all the focus I can get." He flashed a smile towards me, and I moved next to him against the door, keeping as quiet as possible. I wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, but he closed his eyes and started focusing on something. I assumed it was hearing, but then why would that be so hard to do with a vampire? Questions were buzzing through my head, like always, and I suddenly understood why Drewdon would think I'd be the One of Questions.

Nothing happened for the longest time. I started to wonder how Evanen was doing. Was he finished with the Rising already? Passing it on to Drewdon? My thoughts were interupted by a breath of air released by Jove, and I focused on his face, which was serene and still like death. I didn't move, but suddenly I was worried that maybe whatever he did wasn't too smart and he might have died. Then I nearly screamed in surprise when he eyes opened slowly. Instead of solid green eyes, there was a silver glow swamping his irises and he didn't seem to be seeing anything he was looking at. I opened my mouth to ask him if he was okay, but then closed it and waited. I watched his beautiful, glowing eyes with curiousity, wondering exactly what he was doing.

There was a sudden crash outside of the room as someone yelled in utter shock, "I'm blind!" For a moment, there was confused silence, and then more yells followed this one, all similiar and along the lines of blindness, deafness, or both. Jove blinked, and his eyes were back to normal, while those outside the door were throwing a fit over their sudden loss of senses.

"How did you--" I started.

"Yeah, yeah, no questions," Jove interrupted, opening the door so that we could see the sudden chaos that was occuring as vampires suddenly weren't so strong. "Let's go." Jove grabbed my hand and started pulling me out of the livingroom and towards the front door. We reached just in front of the stairs, to the front door, when the albino Coucil member was suddenly in front of us. He glared at Jove mostly.

"I'm afraid you were never let into my mind as of yet," the albino vampire said smugly, "And I'm pretty sure Mr. Draele didn't want that human girl to be freed, either. Are you actually willing to risk our power in the world over some human?" I backed up carefully, and the albino started to move towards me. Jove stepped in front of him, stopping him from coming closer. There was another series of glares as they stood in front of each other in a challege. "Mr. Silverstone, I'd also like to tell you that as of now, your position as Council Interrogator is a under surveilence."

"I'll take my chances," Jove responded dryly, and turned sharply to me. "Run." Without hesitating, I turned to run to the only place open to me at the moment: the stairs. I didn't look to see if I was being followed by the albino, nor did I when I heard a crash behind me as well. I sprinted up the stairs in twos, and started down the hall, looking for the door to the dungeons. If I could just find it, I could slip into the kitchen, and out the back door in no time. It was a good starter plan, and seeing as all the vampires seemed to be busy at the time, there was no better opportunity of escaping this Hell than now.


	32. Chapter 32: The Rising

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

_The Rising_

I started around a corner, and in seconds, I was back behind the corner, pressed against the wall. Both Drewdon and Cecilian were around the corner, at the bottom of stairs that had been pulled into the middle of the hall and led upward. If I wasn't much mistaken, it led to the attic that I had wandered into when Evanen had left my door unlocked one day. The one with the door that led to the large, beautiful balcony. Was this the same one Drewdon had told Cecilian to put Evanen in?

I strained to hear what they were saying as I kept hidden behind the wall. They were talking in desparately fast voices; the vampire language. I was suddenly reminded of Mikel, and a wave of grief moved through me, but I supressed it. Now was not the time to wallow in pity. I waited for some sort of wording that I could actually understand, but they started up the stairs. There was a pause as Cecilian turned towards Drewdon.

"You're sure you want to risk it," she asked uncertainly. I almost sighed in relief that they were speaking english.

"If we have to worry about keeping one weak vampire alive in order to further ourselves in this world, I prefer just having no power anyway. What's the point of immortality if you have to spend it depending on someone," Drewdon asked determinely. There was a pause. I was thinking over what he had just said, trying to connect it with sense. Was Drewdon giving up his place and letting Cecilian take it? Or were they both backing out of the power? Maybe Drewdon was the One of Questions... wait, no, it has to be human. Whatever.

"So, once you get the blood from Evanen, I'll kill him and we'll see if the power still exists in you," Cecilian restated the task to Drewdon, making sure it was what he wanted. She still seemed extremely uncertain. I, meanwhile, almost gasped with realization. They were going to kill Evanen after the Rising whether or not it took away the power.

"And if the power stays, good for us. If not, we're not off any worse than we were before," Drewdon stated. I suddenly heard movement from down the hall coming towards me. Panic took hold, and I slid into the closest room I could, not shutting the door all the way in fear that the noise would attract all the vampires' attention. Through the crack, I saw the albino vampire move past the door and turn to Drewdon and Cecilian. "What's all this about?"

"It's Jove Silverstone, sir," the albino seemed a bit dazed and confused. "He was trying out some sort of mind trick, and he accidentally caused everyone to think they've lost their sight and hearing. It's mass chaos downstairs, sir. We need your help in straightening it all out."

"Why can't Silverstone fix it if he did it," Cecilian snapped, irritated.

"He's not too good on mind control, and he's afraid he'll do even more damage, Mrs. Draele," the albino stated as though repeating something from a play he was reading out loud. There was a moment where no one did anything. Then Drewdon sighed before starting down the hall. As he passed the door, I spotted his irritated look, and saw Cecilian and the albino follow after him. Whatever mind control Jove isn't good at, he sure does make it work for him. He just made everyone forget about me while distracting them from Evanen as well, in the middle of the Rising at all times.

Instead of moving out immediately, I hesitated. There was a good moment of silence before I moved out of the door. I turned the corner and started passing the stairs to the attic, searching furthermore for the dungeon door. Then I paused, hesitating again before looking at the attic stairs with a bit of guilt. Evanen was up there, going through God knows what, and right after he was finished, he was to be killed. As for me, I'm suppose to be killed no matter what happens. Somehow I have made a majority of vampires hate me just by existing. Still, shouldn't I at least try to _warn_ Evanen or something? Then again, Drewdon and Cecilian should be coming back soon enough, and they could just catch me and kill me. Besides, Evanen killed Kyler, and nearly me multiple times. He was just some vampire who lived for nothing but blood and power. Why should I even help him?

I was suddenly stuck in a war of conscience versus survival instinct. I didn't want to become wrapped up in the whole Rising mess. I meant to hide in a hole somewhere until all of it was over and see what happens afterward, but not to actually be in the middle of it. I shouldn't help Evanen because he's a vampire, and if he's a vampire, he could just save himself either way. He did kill Sir Trenton without much effort. But then, he's saved me multiple times as well, and it'd be just cruel of me to just leave him weak and fending for himself. Plus, he doesn't know that they were planning on killing him. But if I help, I'm basically dead. Evanen's dead if I leave. I'm dead if I stay.

I had one foot ready to run away, and the other was planted firmly, waiting to go up into the attic. Breathing just became harder, and fear was planted in my gut as my subconcious decided what I was going to do before I did. I grabbed the stairs and started up into the attic. As I looked into the room I had only been in once, I spotted Evanen immediately. He stood, strapped to the metal table thing that I had seen leaning against the wall. He was stuck immobile by metal straps, but he didn't seem to be trying to get out of the restraints. Instead, he was basically knocked out.

Hesitating, I moved completely into the attic, stepping lightly on the creaking floorboard. "Evanen," I hissed, turning to look behind me. No one was coming yet, so I turned to move towards Evanen's limp body carefully. It was extremely dark up here, but the sky outside seemed to start becoming a bit lighter than the dead of night. The door to the balcony was opened, but if it closed, what sunlight that came up could easily be blocked.

"Evanen," I said quietly, now close to him. I reached up carefully, and placed my hand on his cheek. It was feverishly hot and soft as human skin, and this shocked me to the core. Was he human? That couldn't be. I moved my hand to his neck, still feverish, his arms, feverish, and his hand. His skin was no longer the cold marble I remembered it as. I looked to the side, spotting a small table with a knife and glass on top of it. I assumed this was how Drewdon was going to get his power. Due to curiousity, I grabbed the knife, and moved to Evanen's arm. At first, I hesitated, feeling guilt at even thinking about cutting Evanen when he was weak. Then I could suddenly feel the pain of the gash on my stomach, and the guilt sort of evaporated.

In one swift slice, the knife cut through his skin, and blood started to seep through relunctantly. I watched it with wonder as the blood halted, and the skin started forming together just as a vampire's would. He wasn't human after all. I put the knife back on the table, and reached for Evanen's face. Now becoming a bit desparate, I started tapping his cheek sharply. "Evanen," I hissed again, "Evanen, wake up." When it seemed I was never going to get his attention, I started thinking of what else I could do. I looked about uncertainly.

I could just leave a note. Nah. I looked at the metal straps containing him thoughtfully. For testing, I grabbed one around his wrist and started pulling on it wishfully. It, of course, did not budge. For a moment, I stared at it curiously. Then I moved behind the table to see the straps were locked in the back. They all had the same keyhole, which would unlock it, if I had the key. I moved from behind the table and looked around the attic for a sign of the key. There was none around, which was believable because I would assume Drewdon or Cecilian had it.

There was a sudden noise of footsteps approaching the stairs. Fear suddenly gripped me. I assumed I would die trying to help Evanen, but the key was that I would have helped Evanen. The problem at this point was that I had actually done nothing more than cut Evanen in my time up here. He still had no idea he was to be killed, and he was still stuck on that table. And now someone was coming to the attic, which would end up having me either seen, heard, or smelled easily and I would die without achieving anything.

The most sensible, instinctual thing to do at this point would be to hide, but I knew that would do nothing to prevent my death. Instead, I did, what I believed at the time, the most bravest, stupidest thing possible. I jumped to Evanen, and full on punched him in the face with all my might. Then, without regard for the vampire moving closer to the stairs, I yelled, "EVANEN! EVANEN, WAKE UP!" Amazingly, Evanen opened his eyes with a groan to look at me with a pained expression. Before he could lose focus, I gripped his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me.

"Evanen," I said quickly, "They're going to kill you. You've got to--" A hand choked me off as I was gripped around the neck and thrown across the floor effortless by Drewdon. He looked from me to Evanen with utter rage, and Evanen looked from me to Drewdon with a bit of confusion. I grabbed the back of my head in pain, certain now I was going to die, but at least I did what I came up here for.

"Look what you've done," Drewdon snapped at me, "He could've died without seeing it come, but now you've made it go down the hard path. What was the point in telling him that, huh? He's still going to die. If you haven't noticed, he's a bit tied up. What'd you think, that he put himself there and could easily take himself out? Stupid human." He moved towards me, and I started crawling backward. I looked behind me to see the door out to the balcony. Maybe if I moved out there, the sun could come up in time before he could kill me and finish him off instead. Or he could just throw me off the roof. Whatever.

"Don't touch her," Evanen's voice suddenly growled, and the sound of it scared me. Drewdon turned his head to look at Evanen, who seemed aware of his surroundings suddenly. His hands were clinched in a fist, and there was a sudden glow starting to slide its way through his skin from his fist. At first I thought maybe he was learning a new magic trick, but Drewdon didn't seem too scared. "You leave her alone or I'll kill you."

Drewdon laughed, "You see that light coming from your skin? You're almost done with the transition. I'll get to you once I'm done with your little girl here."

"Don't do it," Evanen yelled angrily, but Drewdon merely smirked.

"Try to stop me," He responded shortly. While he was distracted, I jumped to my feet and ran for the balcony. I got a few steps outside before I noticed that the sun wasn't too close to coming up in time. I was doomed. So I started for the edge of the balcony, but I didn't move a step before Drewdon grabbed me around the waist and spun me around. He had me situated in view of Evanen, who was struggling furiously against his bindings. Drewdon snatched my chin roughly bending my head back painfully. "Say goodbye."

I closed my eyes as Drewdon angrily bit down on my neck, making me gasp in pain. I reached up to try to force his hands off of me, and he bit down more furiously so that I cried out. Evanen roared in the background, fighting against his bindings with such rage that it made the table tremble. I could feel my energy being ripped out of my veins, and it wasn't too long before I lost muscle control and my legs buckled under me. Drewdon kept me up like a ragdoll, and continued to drain me, determined not to stop until I had no heartbeat. I started gasping for air, fighting against whatever death was about to claim me.

There was a burst of light in the attic, and suddenly Evanen was no longer bound by the table. With one swift move unable to be seen even by Drewdon, he plowed into Drewdon, ripping him off of me. I fell to the ground deliriously, my heart fluttering in a desparate fight to continue beating. I couldn't quite move anything in my body anymore, nor could I actually see anything well either. Air was being sharply pulled into my lungs and forced out quickly with struggle, and I was gasping in pain as well. It was like my limbs had all fallen asleep; not a pleasant feeling at all.

Drewdon, having just been thrown across the balcony by Evanen, smiled in malice. "Dear Evanen, it looks as though you've fully transitioned. Do you know what that means," he asked Evanen evily. Evanen was no longer glowing, but there was some definite improvement of quality about his features. Every move he made seemed to be like a humming bird, unable to just move slowly, but flitting about quickly. His eyes seemed to see things no one could possibly imagine, and he looked so hungry for any and everything.

"I think I'll rip you to peices," Evanen responded, and he looked quite eager to do just that.

"Yes, do come over here so that you can pass on the power like you're suppose to," Drewdon suggested, and his fangs appeared in preparance. Evanen glared at him, flitting his eyes to me, who was off in another world in delirium, and back to Drewdon so quickly that it almost couldn't be seen by the vampire eye. "Don't worry about your human anymore. You're beyond that. She's already dead, anyway. She's minutes away if not seconds." He smiled micheviously.

"Why would I give it to you? You're going to kill me," Evanen snarled.

"Evanen, I believe I'm beyond that idea by now. I think I can deal with your existence after receiving the power," Drewdon stated boredly, "If you'd just calm down, you could see that your being alive after all this isn't impossible. Killing you was just an idea Cecilian and I came up with. Just to roll the thought around a bit in our heads. Nothing serious." Evanen hesitated, flitting his eyes to me again.

"if we do this quickly," Drewdon stated, "You could probably save her." This made Evanen hesitate even more, and he looked at Drewdon thoughtfully. The pause seemed to last forever, but it only lasted seconds.

"Fine," Evanen said, "I'll give it to you." Drewdon sighed in relief, and Evanen moved towards him carefully, like a baby learning to walk. When Drewdon was close enough to Evanen, he smiled reassuringly.

"It'll only be a moment," Drewdon responded, and he grabbed Evanen's wrist, which was warm like a humans.

Drewdon reached down to bite into Evanen's wrist, but before he could completely reach the wrist, Evanen said, "Yes, it'll be quick." And he twisted his wrist from Drewdon's grip, reached for his head, and easily twisted it around with such strength that it came off like a bottle cap. Drewdon's corpse collapsed on the ground in dead weight before shriveling into bone dust. He did seem to have come from a long time ago. His head followed suit, and Evanen let it drop to the ground beside him without regret.

Suddenly, Evanen was next to me, reaching down to pull me close to him. "Hailence," He called sweetly, and I felt a sudden calm starting to move through me. Is this death? I barely felt his hand on my cheek, trying to coax me to life. I barely saw his beautiful face twisted with concern. I felt as though I should say something, but I was beyond that point. Evanen bit down on his own wrist, and placed it over my mouth suggestively. I felt the liquid drip lovingly onto my lips, and slide sweetly into my mouth. Evanen had to bite down on his wrist again before placing it back over my mouth. The blood moved onto my tongue, and I could definitly taste the thick liquid that seemed sweet and intoxicating, but held some sort of foreboding decaying scent underneath it.

Whatever the case, the blood suddenly was bringing me back, eating through my body with some sort of goal. I coughed, trying to move away from Evanen's wrist, but he lightly held my head in place. It hurt me that when it came down to it, a promise to a loved one didn't seem important when it came between life or death. I couldn't hold it back any longer, and I pressed my lips on his wrist, surrounding his wound so that I could more successfully gain his blood into my body. The blood continued its devouring goal throughout my body, eating away at all the living cells to replace it with its own. It wasn't too long before it hit my heart, and I suddenly pushed Evanen's wrist away with a gasp of pain. It devoured the cells of my heart, throwing it out into a rapid beat as though it were trying to outrun the blood. But once the blood overtook, my heart stopped...

I gasped as everything came back into view. I wasn't sure what had just happened. Did I die? Was I a vampire already? Evanen had laid me down on the ground of the balcony, and was watching me with interest. I could feel my heart starting back to a regular beat, and everything didn't seem to have changed yet. I groaned, reaching to touch my head, which felt the same.

"It's not over yet," Evanen warned with amusement, "The blood has taken over your body, but now it's going to wait a moment before it starts changing you. Just so that your body doesn't get overwhelmed." I looked at Evanen, feeling a bit scared. He looked the same as he had before the Rising, and that slighlty relieved me. Except there seemed to be a hint of a difference about his features. It was almost unnoticable.

"There's something different about you," I stated.

He shrugged. "I figured as much," he said, "I guess I will just have to see what happens. Besides, I think it'll be interesting to see what everyone thinks now that their future is in the hands of the One of Questions." He smiled happily, as though this were the greatest news in the world. I hesitated, taking this in. He knew I was the One of Questions, but then how could I be if I didn't stop the Rising from occuring? But then I realized what he refered to in that statement.

"You mean... you gave me the key to immortality," I asked in disbelief.

"Yep, you won't be killed now, that's for sure," He stated, "It was the perfect resolution. The best way to save you was to make you the first of the future kind of vampires." I felt a sudden dread. He thinks I'm going to bring about the rising of the vampires, and rule over them. He thinks I'm going to enslave human kind just seconds after I was one. I started laughing. I'm a follower, not a leader, and there's no way I'm going to start killing off humans. Then again, I am technically still human, so maybe actually turning will change my mind.

"You knew about the One of Questions and you still kept me around," I inquired curiously.

Evanen looked a bit tired. "I didn't think you were it at first. The One of Questions is said to have amazing powers that can halt the Rising of Vampires, and you were far from having powers. Though, you did ask a lot of questions... but I figured it out after awhile. I think Drewdon had the idea in his head as well."

"What idea?"

He peered at me with amusement. "Your amazing power," He hinted, "What else would stop the Rising than making the carrier fall in love with a human? A human, of all things, which would be the thing distroyed in the event of the Rising. That was your power. Love. I love you." I felt a power of nerves go off in my gut, and was automatically uncertain and uncomfortable with what to say next.

I turned towards the horizon, where the sun was beginning to come up. I thought about his words, mulling over how blunt he was about everything. It took me a moment to realize there was no bluntness in his statement. He had said it with such softness of his eyes, with such emotion. I thought about what everyone would be expecting of me now that I was the key to immortality. If he loved me, he would protect me, right? He would protect me in whatever decision I made. Right?

I moved my gaze from the horizon to Evanen, opening my mouth in preparation to inform him of my decision to not kill any human beings in the future. I was going to tell him I would not be the leader in the turn of power in the world. Before I could get the words out, I was greeted by a fearful sight. Behind Evanen, Cecilian was raising a silver pole above her head. "EVANEN," I screamed, and he moved to turn just as she struck down. The sudden movement caused me to scream, expecting Evanen to be dead, but his moving caused the pole to stab just below his heart. He seemed startled, and grabbed the pole with pain. Cecilian looked furious that she had missed, and she went to attack Evanen again. With a swift movement, Evanen ripped the pole from his body and thrusted it into Cecilian's chest.

Cecilian gasped, looking down in surprise, and dissolved into the familiar dust and bones. I sighed in relief, turning to Evanen, but he was gripping his chest in pain. For a moment, I waited for him to heal. He looked up from his chest, and looked at me with such pain that it scared me. "Evanen," I asked, confused. I moved towards him slowly, but when he fell over, I nearly stumbled over myself to reach him. "Evanen!" I reached him, and he was gasping in air. "What's wrong?"

"I think.. I think...," I struggled to say the words, and I pushed up his shirt to see the wound was still there, bleeding profusively. Without thinking, I pushed my hands against the wound as though I could heal it by giving it my skin. His blood just moved through my fingers easily each time he took a breath. I could feel his warm skin, and his heart throbbing rapidly beneath my hands. "I think I'm human." I felt as though I could start crying, but tears didn't form in my eyes. It was as though my body forgot how to cry.

"No," I whined, "No, you can't be." Evanen was having even more trouble breathing, and I suddenly felt a wave of pain as my body seized up. I felt a ripple of power move throughout my limbs, and I closed my eyes in pain. I felt as though I was slipping away into some sort of trance, and everything around me seemed to be getting further away.

"You're changing," Evanen stated with a struggle. His voice brought me back, and I focused on him instead of the pain. "I can see it." I couldn't see my hands under the fact that they were being covered with Evanen's blood. I shook my head, trying to will his blood to stay in him. It's unfair. It's unfair. He just got his chance to be human, and didn't even see it until after Cecilian hurt him. It's not fair. Another wave of pain pulsed through me, and I clenched my jaw in agony, trying not to let go of my grip on Evanen's wound. The world was starting to fade again.

"Do you think I have a soul now," Evanen asked suddenly in a low voice. I opened my eyes again, looking at his face. He was looking at the horizon wistfully as though he wasn't dying, but just about to drift into a peaceful sleep.

"Yes," I said, even though I didn't know. I cried out as he gasped in pain. "HELP," I screamed to no one before I felt my own pain push through my limbs. It choked off my scream easily.

"There's the sun," He said, obviously not too worried about his predictament, and I looked at the horizon. The sun was indeed rising over the edge sleepily. It was a beautiful sight, and I hadn't felt the sun's warmth in a long time. It moved over my wriggling, changing skin, and into my sharply tuning eyes without burning or sensitivity. It felt wonderful. "I told you I'd watch the sunrise with you one day." I looked at Evanen, feeling the constant waves of pain now starting to change something about the world around me. Or me. Probably just changing me. I noticed the water in Evanen's eyes as he watched the sun for the first time, and I felt a rush of sadness.

"I love you, Evanen," I said, and amazingly it felt absolutely true. He didn't blink or turn his eyes away from the sunrise. For a moment, I just looked at him, and then I noticed with a sudden wave a pain that I could hear every sound made around me so sharply that it hurt my ears. I could see things I couldn't see before so that it hurt my eyes. I was no longer breathing, and a slow hunger was starting to boil its way into my blood. I closed my eyes, noticing that Evanen wasn't breathing either, and that there was no rush of blood being pulsed throughout him any further. He was dead... and I was beyond death.


	33. Epilogue: The End

**Epilogue**

The grief was such that can't be expressed by one like me. Seriously. I was unable to cry, and I understood what Evanen had meant when he didn't understand the concept of crying. Unable to cry makes it seem like there is no purpose to it. But as I continued to fully change into this new thing, this key to immortality, I had such a rage a grief inside me, and I didn't know how to let it out. It was just there, unable to harm or be unnoticed at the same time. The only answer would be a bitter rage, but that was rather pointless seeing as those I hated were now dead. In fact, everyone who would have any idea I held the power of the future of vampires was dead. Everyone else was waiting for news of their rising... our rising. Or do I have to include myself among vampires?

I decided the best way to get my revenge. There will be no rising. As long as I'm alive, I'm not going to turn any humans into me. I've already lost my promise with Mikel, and there's no point in making it worse. The vampires will just have to find their own way to rise because no key to immortality is going to back them up. I moved away from the cursed house of the Draele, into the woods with the sunlight on my back. I was unable to be followed at the time.

I was finally free to shed my leaves. Winter had arrived for me at last, but not in the way I prefered. I could start wherever I wanted, do whatever I wanted, and be whatever I wanted. No longer was I some human girl named Hailence Wyn Truit. I held the world in my hands. At least, I think. Not that I felt in any mood to go throw a party. The rage and grief was eating at me as I closed my eyes and saw Evanen's peaceful, dead face. What's worse was that I would be stuck with this forever. But then, maybe I could just hide in a hole somewhere until... what... I die? What does happen next?

Like Evanen said: That's what sucks about being the only one of your kind... you never have anything to tell what could possibly happen.

**The End**


End file.
